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Historic Fredericksburg 



Historic 
Fredericksburg 

The Story of an Old Town 



By 

John T. Goolrick 

AUTHOR OF 

'The Life of General Hugh Mercer"" 

'' Irishmen in the Civil War" 

Etc. 



Printed In U. S. A. 

by 

WHITTET & SHEPPERSON RICHMOND VA. 

PhoUerathi By 

DAVIS GALLERY, FREDERICKSBURG VA. 



Fa3 ^ 

C"c7 u Co 



COPYRIGHT, 1922 
JOHN T. GOOLRICK 



m 17 1922 f^ 



g)n!,A661648 



Eiltst iZSoofe IS! Bedtcateb 

{{To one toiio bast not faileb l)tr hienhi, or i)er butp. 

Wif)o ^ai giben freelp of ijer besft. 

?B39i)0£ie fatti) ta^ not faltereb, nor courage bimmeb. 

12St)b {jae: ijelb bist tier tbealai; tnijo tag ligljteb 

a patijioap for tijose siije lobesi. 



Contents 

In The Older Days 13 

One by one the little cabins are built along the river bank 
After the Revolution 26 

In the days of its glory, the Old Town was famed and prosperous 
War's Worst Horrors 37 

Shelled by 181 guns for hours, the town becomes a crumbled ruin 
The First Battle 48 

When, at Marye's Heights and Hamilton's Crossing, war claimed her 

sacrifice 

At Chancellorsville 55 

The Struggle in the Fine Woods when death struck at Southern hearts:' 

Two Great Battles 64 

The fearful fire swept Wilderness, and the Bloody Angle at Spottsylvania 

Heroes of Early Days 70 

The Old Town gives the first Commander, first Admiral and Great Citizens 

Men of Modern Times 98 

Soldiers, Adventurers and Sailors, Heroes and Artists, mingle here 

Unforgotten Women 123 

Some of Many Who Left a Record of Brilliancy, Service or Sacrifice 

At the Rising Sun 133 

Where Famous Men Met; and Mine Host Brewed Funch and Sedition 

Lafayette Comes Back 139 

After Forty Years of Failure, He Hears the Echo of His Youthful 

Triumph 

Old Court Record 142 

Staid Documents, Writ by Hands That Are Still, Are History For Us 

Echoes of the Past 151 

"Ghosts of Dead Hours, and Days That Once Were Fair" 

Where Beauty Blends 165 

Old Gardens, at Old Mansions, Where Bloom Flowers from Long Ago 

Church and School 173 

How They Grew in the New World; Pathways to the Light 

The Church of England 181 

First in Virginia, the Church of England Has the Longest History 

The 250TH Birthday 188 

Fredericksburg Celebrates an Anniversary 
Appendix 199 



FREDERICKSBURG 

A Preface 

Fredericksburg sprawls at the foot of the hills where the 
scented summer winds sweep over it out of the valley of 
brawling waters above. The grass grows lush in the meadows 
and tangles in the hills that almost surround it. In spring the 
flowers streak the lowlands, climb on the slopes, and along the 
ridges; and Autumn makes fair colors in the trees, shading 
them in blood crimson, weathered bronze, and the yellow of 
sunsets. 

Over its shadowed streets hangs the haze of history. It 
is not rich nor proud, because it has not sought; it is quiet 
and content, because it has sacrificed. It gave its energy to 
the Revolution. It gave its heart to the Confederacy; and, 
once when it was thundered at by guns, and red flames twisted 
in its crumbling homes, it gave its soul and all it possessed to 
the South. It never abated its loyalty nor cried out its sorrows. 

In Fredericksburg, and on the battlefields near it, almost 
thirty thousand men lay on the last couch in the shadowy 
forests and — we think — heard Her voice calling and comfort- 
ing them. To the wounded, the Old Town gave its best, not 
visioning the color of their uniforms, nursing them back to 
life: And, broken and twisted and in poverty, it began to re- 
build itself and gather up the shattered ideals of its dead past. 

Out of its heart has grown simple kindness; out of its 
soul simple faith. 

As I look out over the streets, (I knew them well when 
Lee and Jackson and Stuart, Lincoln and Grant and Hancock 



knew them too), they shimmer in the Autumn sun. Over 
them, as has ever seemed to, me, hangs an old and haunting 
beauty. There may not be as great men here as long ago, 
but here are their descendants and the descendants of others 
like them. And he who comes among them will find loyal 
hearts and warm hand-clasps. 

Ah, I know the old town. My bare feet ran along its 
unpaved walks and passed the cabins many a time in slavery 
days. I knew it in the Civil War and reconstruction days, 
and on and on till now : And it has not failed its duty. 

Fredericksburg's history brims with achievement and ad- 
venture. It has not been tried in this volume to tell; all of 
these. I have tried to tell a simple story, with the flame of 
achievement burning on the shrines and the echoes of old 
days sweeping through it, like low winds in the pine woods; 
to make men and women more vivid than dates and numbers. 
I have tried to be accurate and complete and to vision the 
past, but above all, I have loved the things of which I have 
written. 

There is no possibility of expressing the gratitude the 
author feels for the aid given him by others, but he must say, 
briefly, that without the assistance of Miss Dora Jett, Mrs. 
Franklin Stearns, Mrs. John T. Goolrick, and Dr. J. N. 
Barney, Mr. Chester B. Goolrick and Mr. John T. Goolrick, Jr., 
the book could not have been made as readable as we hope 
the public will find it. We owe just as deep thanks to Miss 
Sally Gravatt of the Wallace Library. 

Jno. T. Goolrick. 

Fredericksburg, Va., 
October 25, 192 1. 



INTRODUCTION 

Rev. Robert Campbell Gilmore. 



As A PUBLIC SPEAKER of wide reputation, especially on South- 
ern themes, Hon. John T. Goolrick, Judge of the Corporation 
Court of Fredericksburg, Va., needs no introduction. It is 
my privilege to introduce him as a writer of history to an ever 
widening circle of readers. Other men can gather facts and 
put them in logical order, but few can give the history of the 
old town of Fredericksburg such filial sympathy and interest, 
such beauty of local color, as can this loyal son. 

The father, Peter Goolrick, a man of fine education, 
came from Ireland and made his home in Fredericksburg, and 
was mayor of the town. 

The son has always lived here. The war between the 
States came in his boyhood. His first connection with the Con- 
federacy was as a messenger at the Medical Department head- 
quarters of General Lee. Growing old enough and tiring of 
protected service he enlisted in Braxton's Battery of Freder- 
icksburg Artillery. He was wounded at Fort Harrison, but 
recovering, returned to his command and served to the end of 
the war as "a distinguished private soldier," and surrendered 
with "The last eight thousand' at Appomattox. Since the war 
he has been prominently connected with Confederate affairs. 
At one time he was Commander of the local Camp of Vet- 
erans and is now on the staff of the Commander of all the 
Veterans of the South and Virginia. 

After the war young Goolrick studied law, was elected 
Judge of the Corporation Court of Fredericksburg, and of the 
County Court of Spotsylvania, served for a time as Common- 
wealth's Attorney of Fredericksburg, and later was re-elected 



Judge of the Corporation Court, which position he has held 
for sixteen years, and which he now holds. He has been the 
inceptor often, and always a worker, in every public event 
in the town. 

This is not Judge Goolrick's first appearance as a writer. 
He has contributed many articles to newspapers, and maga- 
zines, and has published several books. He is thus particu- 
larly fitted to Hvrite the history of his own beloved town. 



Historic Fredericksburg 

In the Older Days 

One by one the little cabins are built along the ri'ver bank — 

liNVELOPED in the perfume of old English boxwood 
and the fragrance of still older poplars, and permeated with 
the charm of a two hundred and fifty year old atmosphere, 
the town of Fredericksburg, Virginia, nestles in the soft foli- 
age along the banks of the Rappahannock, at the point where 
the turbulent waters of the upper river rush abruptly against 
the back-wash of the sea, an odd but pleasing mixture of the 
old and the new. 

Subtly rich with the elegance of the past, it looks proudly 
back across its two and a half centuries, but it has not forgotten 
how to live in the present, and combines delightfully all that it 
has of the old with much that is new and modern. 

Perhaps no other community in the country has had a 
more intimate and constant association with the political and 
historic growth of America than Fredericksburg. From the 
earliest Colonial period, when it was a place of importance, it 
traces its influence on the nation's development down through 
the Revolutionary war, the War of 1812, the Mexican 
and Civil wars and the periods of national progress between 
those conflicts, and even today, when the old town has lost its 
touch with affairs as an important community, it still can claim 
a close connection with events through the influence of its 
descendants — sons and daughters — who have gone forth in 
the world and achieved leadership in movements of the day 
that are aiding in shaping the destiny of mankind; and of 
these another chapter tells. 

13 



The Spanish Missionaries 

But while proud of the accomplishments of these, the old 
town does not depend upon them for distinction. It bases its 
claim to this on the events with which it actually has been asso- 
ciated, and the importance of the part it has played in the past 
is proved by data found in the recorded annals of the country. 

It might, indeed, if it sought historical recognition on 
accepted legend rather than known fact, assert an origin that 
antidates that of the first English permanent colony in America. 
A historian, writing in the Magazine of American History, 
says the spot now occupied by Fredericksburg was first discov- 
ered in 1 57 1 by Spanish Missionaries, who erected there the 
first Christian shrine in America. It is almost certain the town 
was settled in 1621, three hundred years ago, but this cannot 
be definitely proven, and the town has not claimed it as a date 
in its established history. It does not claim to have had a 
beginning with the recorded arrival of Captain John Smith, 
one year after the settlement of Jamestown, but takes as its 
birthdate May 2d, 1671, at which time the site was legally 
recognized by a grant from Sir William Berkley, then Colonial 
governor, to John Royston and Thomas Buckner, who are 
looked upon as the real founders of community life at the spot 
now occupied by Fredericksburg. 

Whether or not white men first reached the location as 
early as the suggested arrival of the Spanish Missionaries 
probably must always remain a mystery, though there are 
reasons to believe that this is entirely probable, as it is known 
that Spaniards made an early effort at colonization in Vir- 
ginia, and in 1526 came up the James River from Haiti 
with six hundred people, and, with many negro slaves as work- 
men, founded the town of Miguel, near where Jamestown 
afterwards was establishd by Captain John Smith. It is prob- 
able that these pioneers ventured into the surrounding country, 
and not at all unlikely that some of them strayed as! far as the 
falls of the Rappahannock. 

But if the data are not sufficient to actually prove this early 
visit to the site, it is a fact of record in the diary of "Chirur- 

14 



Captain Smith's First Visit 

geon" Bagnall, a member of the party, that Captain Smith 
reached the spot in 1608, one year after the establishment of 
Jamestown, and after successfully disputing possession of the 
land with a tribe of Indians, disembarked and planted a cross, 
later prospecting for gold and other precious metals. The diary 
of Smith's companions, still in existence, tells of the trip in 
accurate detail and from it is proven that even if the Spanish 
missionaries did not come as far as claimed for them, at least 
the Indians had recognized the natural advantages of the place 
by the establishment there of towns, which might have been in 
existence for hundreds of years. 

Captain Smith made two attempts to explore the Rappahan- 
nock. The first, in June, 1608, ended when the hardy adven- 
turer in plunging his sword into "a singular fish, like a thorn- 
back with a long tail, and from it a poison sting," ran afoul of 
the water monster and because of his sufferings was obliged 
to turn back. The second trip was started on July 24th, 1608, 
and was continued until the falls were reached. 

Dr. Bagnall says in his diary that when near the mouth of 
the river, the party encountered "our old friend, Mosco, a lusty 
savage of Wighconscio, upon the Patawomeck," who accom- 
panied them as guidel and interpreter, and upon reaching the 
falls did splendid service against the unfriendly Indians, "mak- 
ing them pause upon the matter, thinking by his bruit and skip- 
ping there were many savages." In the fighting Captain 
Smith's party captured a wounded Indian and much to the 
disgust of the cheerful Mosco, who wished to dispatch him 
forthwith, spared his life and bound his wounds. This work 
of mercy resulted in a truce with the Redmen, which made 
possible the final undisturbed settlement of the land by the 
whites, the prisoner interceding for Smith and his party. 

Captain Smith's first landing on the upper river probably 
was directly opposite what now is the heart of Fredericksburg, 
Dr. Bagnall's diary says: 

"Between Secobeck and Massawteck is a small isle or two, 
which causes the river to be broader than ordinary; there it 

15 



About The Indian Villages 

pleased God to take one of our company, called Master Feather- 
stone, that all the time he had been in this country had behaved 
himself honestly, valiently and industriously, where in a little 
bay, called Featherstone's bay, we buried him with a volley 
of shot * * * 

"The next day we sailed so high as our boat would float, 
there setting up crosses and graving our names on trees." 

Captain Quinn, in his excellent History of Fredericks- 
burg, says that Featherstone's bay "is in Stafford, opposite 
the upper end of Hunter's island," but it is probable he did not 
closely examine facts before making this statement, as his own 
location of other places mentioned in Dr. Bagnall's diary serves 
to disprove his contention as to the whereabouts of the bay. 

"Seacobeck," Captain Quinn says, "was just west of the 
city almshouse." The almshouse was then situated where the 
residence of the President of the State Normal School now 
stands. Massawteck, Captain Quinn locates as "just back of 
Chatham." If his location of these two places is correct, it is 
clear that the "small isle or two," which the diary says was 
located between them, must have been at a point where a line 
drawn from the President's residence, at the Normal School, 
to "just back of Chatham" would intersect the river, which 
would be just a little above the present location of Scott's 
island, and that Featherstone's bay occupied what now are the 
Stafford flats, extending along the river bank from nearly 
opposite the silk mill to the high bank just above the railroad 
bridere and followed the course of Claibourne's Run inland, to 
where the land again rises. The contours of the land, if fol- 
lowed, here show a natural depression that might easily have 
accommodated a body of water, forming a bay. 

There are other evidences to bear out this conclusion. 
Dr. Bagnall's diary says : "The next day we sailed so high as 
our boat would float." It would have been an impossibility 
to proceed "high" (meaning up) the river from Hunter's island 
in.' boats, even had it been possible to go as high as that point. 

i6 



Establishment of the Town 

Notwithstanding contradictory legend, the falls of the Rappa- 
hannock have been where they are today for from five to 
one hundred thousand years, and there is no evidence whatever 
to indicate that Hunter's Island ever extended into- tidewater, 
the formation of the banks of the river about that' point giving 
almost absolute proof that it did not. 

No authentic data can be found to prove the continued use 
of the site as a settlement from Smith's visit forward, though 
the gravestone of a Dr. Edmond Hedler, bearing the date 
1617, which was found near Potomac run in Stafford county, 
a few miles from the town, would indicate that there were 
white settlers in the section early in the 17th century, and 
if this is true there is every reason to believe the falls of the 
Rappahannock were not without their share, as the natural 
advantages of the place for community settlement would have 
been appealing and attractive to the colonists, who would 
have been quick to recognize them. 

In 1622, according to Howe's history, Captain Smith pro- 
posed to the London Company to provide measures "to ro- 
tect all their planters from the James to the Potowmac rivers." 
a territory that included the Rappahannock section, which can 
be taken as another indication of the presence of settlers in the 
latter. 

The first legal record of the place as a community is had 
in 1671 — strangely enough just one hundred years after the 
reported coming of the Spaniards — when Thomas Royston 
and John Buckner were granted, from Sir William Berkley, 
a certain tract of land at "the falls of the Rappahannock." 
This was on May 2d, and shortly afterward, together with forty 
colonists, they were established on what is now the heart of 
Fredericksburg, but known in those remote times as "Lease- 
land." This is the date that Fredericksburg officially takes as 
its birthday, though additional evidence that colonists already 
were in that vicinity is had in the fact that the boundaries of 
the land described in the grant from Governor Berkley to 
the two early settlers, ended where the lands of one Captain 
Lawrence Smith began. 

17 



Major Lawrence Smith's Fort 

Three or four years after the grant was made to Buckner 
and Royston the "Grande Assemblie at James Cittie" took 
official cognizance of the Colony by ordering Major Lawrence 
Smith and one hundred and eleven men to the Falls of the 
Rappahannock for the purpose of protecting the colonists. 
Records in regard to this say, "At a Grande Assemblie at James 
Cittie, between the 20th of September, 1674, and the 17th of 
March, 1675, i^ was ordered that one hundred and eleven 
men out of Gloucester be garrisoned at one ffort or place of 
defense, at or near the falls of the Rappahannock river, of 
which ffort Major Lawrence Smith is to be captain or chief 
commander." It was also ordered that "the ffort be furnished 
with four hundred and eight pounds of powder and fourteen 
hundred pounds of shott." 

A few years later, in 1679, Major Smith was authorized by 
the Jamestown government to mark out, below the falls of the 
Rappahannock, a strip of land one mile long and one-fourth 
of a mile wide, to be used as a colony and, together with eight 
commissioners, he was empowered to hold court and administer 
justice. Within this confine he was instructed to build habita- 
tions for two hundred and fifty men, fifty of whom were to be 
kept well armed and ready to respond to the tap of a drum. 
It would appear that the "ffort" mentioned in the earlier 
meeting of the "Grande Assdmblie" was not built until this 
year. The contention that it was erected ori the Stafford side 
of the river seems to be without any foundation of fact. 

That the community was now growing seems to be proven 
by the fact that the same act, defining the limits mentioned 
above, also mentioned a larger district, defined as extending 
three miles above the fort and two miles below it for a distance 
of four miles back, over which Major Smith and his com- 
missioners were to have jurisdiction. Two years later, in 
1 68 1, the little town received a great impetus when two hun- 
dred families came to join the colony. From this time for- 
ward, the community began to take an important part in the 
life of the Colonies. 

18 



Falmouth's Fast Growth 

In 17 lo, upon the invitation of Baron de Graff enried, a 
friend of Governor Spotswood, tv^^elve German families came 
to America and settled on the Rapidan river, eighteen miles 
above Fredericksburg, opening the first iron mines and estab- 
lishing the first iron works in America. They named the place 
Germanna, and, according to an account left by one of the 
party, "packed all their provisions from Fredericksburg," then 
the principal trading point of the section. 

In 1 71 5, Governor Spotswood and the now-famed 
"Knights of the Golden Horseshoe," started from Germanna 
(some of them came through Fredericksburg en route and 
>. stopped with Austin Smith). Assembling at Germanna they 
left on September 24th and continued across the Blue Ridge 
mountains to the Valley of Virginia. An interesting account 
of the trip, which has been made the theme of song and story, 
and even the basis of a secret society, can be found in the diary 
of John Fountaine, a member of the party. 

For a period nothing seems to have happened to the com- 
munity of sufficient importance to be recorded, and for the 
next few years the imagination must supply the story of the 
settlement. It probably was a village of irregular, straggling 
streets and indifferent houses, with a population that struggled 
for a living by trading, trapping and other pursuits of that day. 
Its stores were likely very good iov those times, but across 
the river it had a rival in its neighbor, Falmouth, which as a 
place of importance was fast catching up with it, and soon was 
destined to pass it, for in 1720, seven years earlier than "The 
Leaseland," it received its charter from the House of Bur- 
gesses at Williamsburg, who vested its government in seven 
trustees. 

If not as a political and social center, at least as a trading 
point, Falmouth had soon superceded Fredericksburg. It was 
the market for all the grain of the upper country, which by 
this time was beginning to be settled, and was in direct com- 
mercial communication with England, Europe and the West 
Indies by ocean-going vessels, which, when under 140 tons 

19 



'Leaseland" Is Chartered 

burden, could come up to its wharves. It was a great mill- 
ing center and its merchants began to grow prosperous and 
wealthy, one of them, Mr. Bazil Gordon, accumulating the 
first million dollars ever made in America, though he was the 
product of a little later date than that now under considera- 
tion. 

Grain brought out of Falmouth in boats larger than 140 
tons was first put upon barges or flat boats of large capacity, 
which were conveyed down the river to waiting vessels and 
transferred by slave labor. The stories heard of large vessels 
docking at the Falmouth wharves are apocryphal ; no boat 
of great tonnage ever got as far as Falmouth. This may 
account for Fredericksburg's final supremacy over Falmouth, 
which doubtless came about the time the first ferry was started, 
permitting the planters to cross the river with their grain and 
load directly to the waiting vessels, thus saving time and work, 
valuable considerations even in those days of abundant leisure 
and cheap slave labor. 

But, while Falmouth was progressing "Leaseland" was 
also making strides, and in 1727 it became of sufficient import- 
ance to receive its charter from the House of Burgesses, and 
was named in honor of Frederick, Prince of Wales, son of 
George II. The Prince died before ascending the throne, but 
his son became George III., and it was thus from the domina- 
tion of the son of the Prince for whom their town was named 
that the patriotic people of the little village later plotted to 
free themselves. The act giving the town a charter names 
John Robinson, Henry Willis, Augustine Smith, John Talia- 
ferro, Henry Beverly, John Waller and Jeremiah Crowder as 
trustees, and the streets were named for members of the Royal 
family, names which fortunately endure today, despite an 
attempt made some years ago to modernize the town and dis- 
card the beautiful and significant old names in favor of the less 
distinguished and uglier method of numerical and alphabetical 
designations. 

Settlers now were rapidly coming into the community 
which was growing in importance. In 1732, Colonel Byrd 

20 



"Town Fairs" Are Begun 

owner of vast tracts where now stands the magnificent city of 
Richmond, an important man in the Colonial life of Virginia, 
came to Fredericksburg, calling on his friend, Colonel Henry 
Willis, "top man of the town," as Colonel Byrd refers to him in 
his very interesting account of the visit preserved to posterity. 
Colonel Byrd was impressed by Fredericksburg, particularly by 
the stone jail, which, he said, seemed strong enough "to hold 
Jack Shepherd" and with the versatility of one Sukey Living- 
stone, or Levinston, doctress and coffee woman. Some believe 
that the old stone building at the Free Bridge head is the jail 
referred to. 

The seat of justice which had been located at Germanna, 
was this year moved to Fredericksburg, St. George's parish 
established and the church erected, with Rev. Patrick Henry, 
uncle of the famous orator, as its first rector. 

In 1738 the House of Burgesses authorized the holding 
twice annually of town fairs for the sale of cattle, provisions, 
goods, wares and all kinds of merchandise, and it is easy to 
understand how these affairs became the most important events 
in the life of the village, attracting plantation owners from 
miles and taking on a social as well as business aspect. And 
as the act also provided that all persons attending these fairs 
should be immune from arrest for two days previous and two 
days subsequent to the events, except for capital offenses or 
breaches of the peace, suits, controversies and quarrels that 
might arise during the events, it can well be imagined that 
they were lively and exciting gatherings. 

One year later the trustees found it necessary to purchase 
additional land for the accommodation of the growing popu- 
lation but a bargain was struck with Henry Willis, "the top 
man of the town," and John Lewis only after the House of 
Burgesses had taken up the matter deciding the ownership of 
the lands in question and fixing the sum to be paid Willis at 
fifteen pounds and Lewis at five pounds, not a bad total price, 
considering the survey shows that only three acres were 
bought. 

21 



Masonry Is Established 

The town had now grown to such importance as a trad- 
ing point that the establishment of direct connections with the 
Stafford shore was made necessary, and in 1748 the first ferry 
was authorized by law. Evidently from this time forward the 
town began to forge ahead of its thriving neighbor, Falmouth, 
for the lessened expense of transferring grain directly to the 
waiting ships made it more attractive as a market and many of 
the up-country people who formerly had sold their gain and 
traded in Falmouth, now crossed on the ferry and spent their 
money with the merchants of Fredericksburg. The establish- 
ment of Masonry in 1752, at which time the lodge was known 
as "The Lodge of Fredericksburg," points to the growing 
importance of the place; and that the Colonial citizens were 
keenly alive to the benefits to be derived from attracting indus- 
try to their towns is attested to by an act of the General Assem- 
bly, passed in 1759, to encourage the arts and manufactury in 
the Colonies, which set up a premium of five hundred pounds 
to be awarded the citizen making the best ten hogsheads of 
wine in any one year, within eight years from the passage of 
the act. A number of citizens of the town contributed to the 
fund, among them George Washington, who gave two pounds. 
In the Indian wars of 1755-57, Fredericksburg became an 
important depot and rendezvous for troops. Recruits, provi- 
sions, supplies and ordnances were sent to the town in quan- 
tities, and on April 15th, 1757, Governor Dinwiddie ordered 
Colonel George Washington to send two hundred men there to 
be "Thence sent by vessels to South Carolina, to treat with 
curtesy the Indians at Fort London, and to send them out in 
scalping parties with such number of men as you can spare." 

But now the peaceable growth and prosperity of the vil- 
lage were to be halted. Dissatisfaction with the government 
in England began to grow, and there were murmurings of dis- 
content and resentment, not by any means indulged in by all 
the citizens, for large numbers were still utterly loyal to the 
Crown, and those who opposed its policies congregated to them- 
selves, meeting in secret or standing in little groups about the 
streets to give vent to their feelings. 

22 



The Revolution Gathers 

One well-known place for the meeting of "Revolutionists" 
was the Rising Sun tavern still standing in good order, at that 
time kept by ''Mine Host," George Weedon. This famed old 
Tavern is told of in another chapter. It is almost certain that 
at this tavern the rough draft was made of a resolution to be 
later passed in a public town meeting, which was tantamount to 
a declaration of independence, and which was passed twenty- 
one days before the famous Mecklenburg declaration and more 
than a year before that of the American congress. 

These resolutions were adopted on the 29th day of April, 
1775, amidst the greatest public excitement. News of the 
battle of Lexington, fought on the 20th of April, and of the 
removal by Lord Dunmore of twenty barrels of powder from 
the public magazine at Williamsburg to the English frigate 
"Fowey," then lying near Yorktown, which occurred one day 
after the battle of Lexington, had just reached Fredericksburg. 
Immediately the citizens showed their indignation. More than 
six hundred men from the town and the surrounding country 
armed themselves and sent a courier to General Washington, 
then at Williamsburg, offering their services in defense of the 
Colonies. Delegates were also dispatched to Richmond to 
ascertain the true state of affairs, and to find out at what point 
the men should report. The men stayed under arms and in 
readiness to move at short notice until General Washington 
transmitted a message, advising that they restrain from any 
hostilities until a congress could be called to decide upon a gen- 
eral plan of defense. This advice was received by a council 
of more than a hundred men, representing fourteen companies 
(the number under arms having by this time grown), which 
decided by a majority of one to disperse for the present, but 
to keep themselves in readiness for a call. Many of them after- 
wards joined the armies of General Washington. 

Material preparations for the conflict that everyone, even 
the Tories, now felt was certain, were made by the establish- 
ment at the town of the first small arms manufactury in 
America, which was located on what now is known as Gun- 
nery Green. Colonel Fielding Lewis, brother-in-law of Gen- 

23 



'The Gunnery Is Built 

eral Washingfton, was one of the commissioners in charge of 
the gunnery and active in its management. 

With the coming of the Gunnery, and the formation of 
companies of troops, the peaceful atmosphere of Fredericks- 
burg quickly changed to one of a militaristic aspect. Recruits 
drilled in the street, the manufacture of arms was rushed, sup- 
plies were received and stored, couriers, with news from other 
parts of the country, dashed in to acquaint the eager towns- 
people with events, and those loyal to the Colonies went bravely 
about with every kind of war preparation, while those inclined 
to Toryism kept quiet and to themselves, or moved away with 
their families, hoping, and probably succeeding in many cases, 
in reaching England before the wholei country was affected by 
the war, in which the part played by Fredericksburg and its 
citizens was of the utmost importance. The town gave to the 
Revolution an unusually large proportion of troops and many 
of the great leaders. 

During the Revolution, although Fredericksburg men 
were the leaders of the Army, no fighting occurred here and the 
period was not one of danger for the town, but was one of 
anxiety for the inhabitants. Tarleton passed close to this city 
on his raid towards Charlottesville, and Lafayette and his men 
built the road still known as "The Marquis Road," through the 
Wilderness toward Orange. 

Recently three soldiers, whose uniform buttons testify 
they were Hessians, were dug up near Spotsylvania Court 
House. A prison camp existed about two miles from here 
on the Plank Road from which Washington] recruited some 
artisans to do the interior decorating in the home of his 
beloved sister, Betty, at Kenmore. 

Several Regiments went from Fredericksburg. General 
William Woodford (see sketch of life) was elected Conv 
mander of the first. Among his descendants are the late 
Marion Willis, Mayor Willis and Mr. Benj. Willis. General 
Hugh Mercer was chosen Commander of the third regiment, 
and James Monroe, of Fredericksburg (afterfwards president) 

24 



Regiments Are Recruited 

was Lieut.-Colonel, while Thomas Marshall, father of Chief 
Justice Marshall, was Major. The other Virginia Regiment 
was not recruited here. It was commanded by Patrick Henry. 

Although it furnished two of the first three Virginia Regi- 
ments, and half of America's Generals, as well as the Com- 
manding General, Fredericksburg was not a war center. Its 
history during that period will be found in the lives of the men 
it produced, elsewhere in this book. 

It did give most material aid by furnishing arms from 
the "Gunnery" of Col. Fielding Lewis, and was generous in 
its financial aid, and always ready for attack. 



25 



After the Revolution 

In the days of its glory, the Old Toiun njjasjamed and prosperous 

The first mention of Fredericksburg in the annals of the 
new Republic is an act of the legislature in 1781, incorporat- 
ing the town and vesting the powers of its government in the 
hands of a mayor and commonality, consisting of a council and 
board of aldermen. Courts were established and provision 
made for future elections of its officials. 

The first mayor was Charles Mortilmer, and the Board of 
Aldermen consisted of William Williams, John Sommerville, 
Charles Dick, Samuel Roddy and John Julien, who, together 
with the mayor, were also justices of the peace, and required 
to hold a hustings court monthly. John Legg was appointed 
sergeant of the court and corporation, and John Richards and 
James Jarvis constables. The town's initial commonwealth's 
attorney, John Minor, is said to have been the first man to 
offer in any legislative body of the country a bill for the eman- 
cipation of the slaves. 

The first action of the court is interesting, especially in 
these times. It was giving license to five persons to conduct 
taverns, immediately followed by an act to regulate them by 
establishing prices for alcoholic, vinous and fermented bever- 
ages. There is no mention of opening or closing hours, 
Sunday selling, selling to minors or any of the later and stricter 
regulations, and the prices to be charged are in terms of 
pounds, or parts, per gallon. The American bar was unknown 
then and probably even in the taverns and tap rooms, little 
liquor was sold by the drink. Some of the prices established 
translated into dollars, were West Indian rum, per gallon, 
$3.34; brandy, $1.67; good whiskey, $1.00; good beer, $0.67 
and so on. 

26 



The Famed "Peace Ball' 

Having taken care that the tavern keepers could not 
charge too much for drink, the court now provided that they 
should not over charge for food served, placing the score for 
a "single diet" at; twenty-five cents, a most reasonable sum 
according to modern standards. 

While having the power to regulate, the court was not 
without regulation from a superior source as the articles of 
incorporation show that in case of misconduct on the part of 
the mayor or any member of the board, the others would have 
power to remove him after the charges had been fully proved, 
and it further stipulated that should any person elected to 
office fail or refuse to serve, he should be fined according to 
the following scale: mayor, fifty pounds; recorder, forty 
pounds; alderman, thirty pounds; councilman, twenty-five 
pounds. In 1782 an amendment was passed by the legislature, 
enlarging the jurisdiction of the court to include all territory 
within one mile of the town limits. 

Fredericksburg was not long in recovering from the 
effects of the Revolution. It had suffered no physical damage, 
though it had lost a great deal of actual and potential value 
in the deaths of citizens who gave their lives for the cause. 
A magnificent Peace Ball was held, in 1784, in the assembly 
room over the old City Hall, at Main Street and "Market 
Alley," which was attended by General Washington, General 
Lafayette, Rochambeau, Washington's mother, who came lean- 
ing on his ai^m and all the notables and fashionables of the 
country. The town was soon again a thriving hustling center 
of trade and business. 

New enterprises came as requirements of the times made 
themselves felt. In 1786 the Virginia Herald made its appear- 
ance, the first newspaper published in the town, and about the 
same time whipping posts, ducking stools, and pillories were 
established to keep down the crimiinal tendencies of the unlaw- 
fully inclined. In 1789 an act was passed, empowering the 
trustees of the Fredericksburg Academy to raise by lottery 
$4,000 to defray the expenses of erecting a building on the 

27 



Commercial Development 

grounds for the accommodation of professors, a method of 
raising money that modern morals has outlawed. In 1795 
the Episcopal Charity School was established by Archibald 
McPherson one of the splendid men of the town and in 1799 
the town experienced its first serious fire, which was held by 
some to have been the work of an incendiary and by others 
as due to a wooden chimney. The council in an effort to 
assuredly exclude all danger of another such from either 
source, offered a reward of $500. for conviction of the incen- 
diary, and passed an ordinance abolishing wooden chimneys, 
and stove pipes sticking through windows or the sides of 
houses, provided the buildings were not fire proof. 

From 1800 to 1850 Fredericksburg was the principal 
depot of trade and commerce for all that region between the 
Rappahannock river and the counties of Orange, Culpeper, 
Rapidan, Madison and Fauquier in addition to the contiguous 
territory and the great section lying between the town and 
the Chesapeake bay. Commerce with the upper country, how- 
ever, was the most productive, for the lower country people 
were in close connection with the rivers and, as in those days 
all shipping was done by water ways, they shipped from 
wharves along the Rappahannock near their homes. They 
received much of their goods in this manner and were not so 
dependent upon the town as the upper country people who 
were forced to bring their products to Fredericksburg by 
wagon trains, which lumbered slowly down with their burdens 
of grain, produce and tobacco, and having unloaded and tar- 
ried awhile, lumbered back even more slowly, loaded with 
groceries, wines, liquors, household stores, plantation sup- 
plies, dry goods and merchandise for the country stores. 

These wagons were of huge dimensions, "their curving 
bodies being before and behind at least twelve feet from the 
ground" according to one writer. They had canvas covers 
and were drawn by four horses always, sometimes six and 
eight, carrying jangling bells upon their collars. As many as 
two hundred of them were often on the streets or in the 

28 



Fires Sweep the Town 

wagon yards of Fredericksburg at one time, making pros- 
perity for the energetic merchants of that distant day, and 
bringing business for the many vessels, somd of them large 
three masted schooners, which came from all parts of the 
globe to anchor at the wharves. 

At about this time Fredericksburg received two serious 
blows that greatly retarded its progress and prosperity. The 
first was in 1808, when nearly half the town was destroyed 
by a fire which broke out at the corner of Princess Anne and 
Lewis streets, where the Shepherd residence now stands, and 
fanned by a high wind quickly roared its way through the 
inflammable houses, such as most of the residences then were, 
until the town was half in ashes. At the outbreak of the fire 
most of the citizens were attending the races at "Willis Field," 
just below the town, and before they could get back it had 
gained such headway that their efforts to check it were inef- 
fectual. It is said the fire was caused by the overturning of 
a candle in the kitchen of the Stannard home, occupying the 
present site of the Shepherd residence, where refreshments 
werq being prepared for the funeral of Mr. Stannard, and 
that the remains were gotten out of the/ house only with great 
difficulty on the part of the mourners. In those days funerals 
were accompanied by feasts, at which cake in sombre wrap- 
pings and wine in glasses with long black ribbons tied to the 
stems, were served. 

Much of the brick construction on the upper business 
section of Main street, and a number of residences known as 
Colonial, are results of that fire, but deserve to be called Colo- 
nial as that period, architectually speaking, extended until 
about the year 1812. The Shepherd residence, of course, was 
built following the fire; the old Doswell home, now occupied 
by Mr. A. W. Rowe,, probably was erected afterwards and 
the old Marye home, now owned by Mr. A. L. Jenkins, has a 
corner stone bearing the date 181 2, the residence formerly 
occupying that site having been burned. However, most of 
the older residences in Fredericksburg antedate the fire, and 
are of an earlier Colonial period. 

29 



During The War 0/1812 

Another blow was the War of 1812, and though, as in 
the case of the Revolution, the city did not suffer actual phy- 
sical damage, its business and trade were interrupted and 
severely decreased, if not totally stopped, due to the English 
dominance of the seas and during the course of that conflict, 
the commercial life must have been slow and stagnant. 

Fredericksburg itself was for a time threatened when 
the English admiral, Cockburn, made a raid up the Rappa- 
hannock. Many thought his objective was Fredericksburg 
and General William Madison, brother of the President, sum- 
moned a small force which took up positions of defense, from 
which to repel the raider, but he never got up the river as far 
as the city, turning when much lower down and putting back 
to sea for a cause which history has not assigned. During 
this war, as had been the case in the Revolution, and was to 
be in the Civil war to come, the Mercer home, now occupied 
by Councilman George W. Heflin, which stands on an emi- 
nence on lower Main street commanding a splendid view of 
the river, was used as a post from which to watch for the 
approach of enemy ships, a use that has given it the name of 
'The Sentry Box." 

Following the War of 18 12, Fredericksburg's trade 
revived and increased, and the city settled down to a full 
enjoyment of that remarkably cultural era — the only classical 
civilization America has ever known — which lasted until the 
Civil war and which has been made famous in song and story 
and the history of the old South, The families of the early 
settlers had by now become wealthy; the plantation masters 
owned hundreds of slaves, farmJed thousands of acres and lived 
in their handsome old Colonial mansions in the most mag- 
nificent style) the times could afford. Surrounded by many 
servants and all the comforts known to the day, they enter- 
tained lavishly, kept splendidly stocked wine cellars, boasted 
of private race courses and keen thoroughbred hunters and 
racers, and, as the business of the plantations was largely in 
the hands of overseers, they were gentlemen of splendid 
leisure with an abundance of time opportunity and means to 

30 



Care-Free Era of Gayety 

devote to sports, politics and literature. Most of them were 
educated abroad and were learned in the classics, clever and 
entertaining conversationalists, beautiful riders, excellent 
shots, and when not engaged in social or literary pursuits that 
kept them indoors, enjoyed the sports of the field, hunting to 
the hounds, gunning for quail, deer, bear, wild turkey or duck, 
or fishing in the abundantly supplied streams tributary to the 
Potomac and Rappahannock rivers. Hard drinking was not 
unusual among them, but they were men of the highest sense 
of honor and principle, and were always true to an obligation. 

While the townspeople did not enjoy life quite so lavishly 
as their plantation neighbors, they were not far behind ; enter- 
taining frequently and hospitably and mingling freely with the 
people from the country. 

But though it was a gay and carefree day, the times were 
not without their troubles. In 1822 the town was again vis- 
ited by fire, this time originating at the site of the present 
Brent's store, at Main and George streets, destroying the entire 
business block encompassed between Main and Princess Anne 
and George and Hanover streets. Recovery from this fire 
was rapid. The merchants were financially substantial and 
quickly rebuilt the burned area. 

As early as 1822, Fredericksburg was an important postal 
point, the mail for five states being assorted and distributed in 
the city and sent thence to its final destination. The conduct 
of Postmaster General Meigs in regard to increasing the com- 
pensation of carriers on the Fredericksburg route without 
authorization from Congress, was the subject of an investiga- 
tion by that body, but he was exonerated when it was explained 
that the increase was necessary because the mail had become 
so heavy that carriersl were no longer able to handle it on 
horse back, being compelled to use surries, an added expense 
to them which justified the additional pay. 

James Monroe, a former resident, lawyer and council- 
man of Fredericksburg, was at that time President of the 
United States, and though the town doubtless was a naturally 

31 



The Town Grows Richer 

important postal distribution, it may have been that the Presi- 
dent's influence had some bearing- on the selection of the place 
which had given him his political start. 

For the next decade, the trade and commercial life of the 
town increased. The merchants and manufacturers — by this 
time several large industries of this character being in opera- 
tion — were busy and prosperous and had begun to grow either 
wealthy, measured in the standards of the time, or were in 
very comfortable circumstances, while the citizenry, generally, 
was prosperous and free from want. The town was com- 
pactly built, many of its structures now being of brick, and 
was regularly laid out. The public buildings consisted of a 
courthouse, market house, clerks office, the Episcopal Orphan 
Asylum, the Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and 
Reform Baptist Church. It had two banks, one female and 
one male academy of the higher class ; a water system supplied 
through pipes from Poplar Spring. And the upper river 
canal was being built, a public enterprise from which great 
results were expected and which was to extend about forty 
miles up the Rappahannock. Gold was being mined in con- 
siderable quantities in upper Spotsylvania and lower Culpeper 
counties and brought to Fredericksburg in exchange for goods, 
and a generally thriving trade was being done, chiefly in grain, 
bacon, tobacco and other farm products for export. One writer 
has computed the city's annual exports at that time as aver- 
aging four million dollars, and Government statistics show 
that there were irt the town in 1840, seventy-three stores, two 
tanneries', one grist mill, two printing plants, four semi-weekly 
newspapers, five academies with 256 students, and seven 
schools with 165 scholars. The population in that year was 
3,974. Ten years previous it had been< 3,308, divided as fol- 
lows: whites, 1,797; slaves, 1,124; free blacks, 387, 

From 1840 until the middle fifties, prosperity was con- 
tinued. The canal was completed and had brought about an 
increased business at a lower cost. A railroad was in opera- 
tion from Richmond through Fredericksburg to Aquia Creek, 
and steamboats had to some extent taken the place of sailing 

32 



The City Limits Are Set 

vessels as a means of water transportation, meaning^ quicker 
trips with greater burdens. In 185 1 the legislature passed 
an act empowering the town to extend its limits, which was 
done according to a survey made by William Slaughter, and 
though that was more than seventy years ago, and though 
the population has since more than doubled, overflowing the 
limits and encroaching on the adjoining county, the limits have 
not again been enlarged. 

In 1855: Fredericksburg's trade had ceased to grow at a 
rate equal to its average yearly increase for the previous twenty 
years, a condition for which the business men of that day 
were not altogether responsible, but which rather was brought 
about by the new commercial era the country and world was 
just entering — the era of railroad transportation, which 
quickly and cheaply, in comparison toi past charges, carried 
the staples of the farm to the ports of the sea where waiting 
vessels stood ready to spread their sable sails on voyages to 
foreign markets. This era created the importance of the sea- 
port and spelled the doom, as important shipping points, of 
the tidewater cities — those whic/i had been located at the 
point where mountain torrent and still water meet in order to 
get both the advantage of power production and trade routes. 

It is true that the business men of the city made the serious 
mistake about this period of building a plank road into one 
portion of the upper country from which they derived much 
trade, instead of building a railroad, for just a little later 
transportation by wagon train for export purposes had nearly 
entirely given away to transportation by rail, and! Fredericks- 
burg was utterly without such connection with its greatest 
field of trade, which soon was largely converted into other 
channels by the railroads now beginning to practically sur- 
round the town at a distance of approximately forty miles to 
the west. The single railroad passing through Fredericksburg 
had no coast terminal. Throughout its short length it paral- 
leled the coast, offering no means of shipping for export, 
which comprised most of the business of the day. The planta- 
tion owners of the upper country who had dealt nearly entirely 

33 



The War Ends Prosperity 

in Fredericksburg, now found it cheaper to haul to the rail- 
road passing through their country and soon Fredericksburg 
was belted by little towns to the west. When later the P. F. 
& P. R. R. was built to Orange, it did not save the situation 
and except for lumber and ties, a trade it still largely enjoys, 
it has never hauled much to Fredericksburg for export, though 
it did help the city considerably in the matter of retail business. 

Trade, however, had not ceased entirely to grow, nor the 
town to increase. In i860 its population was nearly 5,000 
persons', its business men still were active and prosperous and, 
but for the Civil war which was to come, they doubtless would 
have found a way out of the commercial difficulty confronting 
them and a different history of the town from that time for- 
ward might have been written. 

But over the course of a few years preceding this date, 
the community was troubled and torn by political strife and 
moral dissention. Black and ominous on the horizon of men's 
thoughts loomed the slave question, perplexing the country's 
leaders and giving threats of the red carnage that was to 
follow. A carnage that cost millions in men and money, 
caused unreckoned anguish and suffering, and retarded the 
growth of the South to such an extent that at the end of the 
following fifty years it had only just begun to emerge from 
the black shadow cast over it by the war. 

By the end of the fifty's, trade had almost ceased, a spirit 
of patriotism for the Southland superseded that of commer- 
cial enterprise, the quietness of the soft old Colonial town 
was broken by wild public meetings; soon the call of a bugle 
floated softly across the still air and thej heavy monotonous 
tread of feet sounded against the ground in unison to the 
beating of drums, and though the citizens had been loyal to 
the Union, sending by nearly a two-thirds majority a Union 
man to the State convention, they made ready for the inevi- 
table conflict, and when the flame of war burst on the country 
like a flaring torch, they threw in their lots with the land of 
their nativity and bravely shouldering their arms, marched 

34 



A Town in "No Man's Land' 

away from their homes to a fate that would bring them death 
or sorrow, and reduce their land to a shambles. The story of 
the Civil war as it effected this town is told in other chapters 
which follow this. 

For many years after the Civil war, Fredericksburg's 
connection with the great tragedy was told in the lines of 
patient suffering that webbed the faces of the older generation. 
It was a town of sombre, black figures — the widows and 
daughters of soldiers — gentle creatures who moved about in 
quiet dignity, bravely concealing the anguish hidden in their 
hearts, and smilingly making the best of such disordered con- 
ditions and distressing circumstances as before they had never 
known. It was a town filled with broken, crushed men, ill 
fitted for the harsher demands of their new lives; men once 
rich but now suddenly tossed from the foundations that always 
had sustained them, who found themselves aliens in an 
unknown and unfriendly world. 

Blackened, scarred ruins of what once had been magnifi- 
cent homes remained mute, grim evidences of the ghastly 
horror and the quaint old town was stunned and still, a tragic 
wreck of its one time beauty. But as best it could it gathered 
up the tangled threads of its existence and for the next decade 
struggled dumbly and blindly against the terrible disadvantages 
imposed upon it by the ruthlessness of war. 

When the war came with Spain, iti showed that the hurt 
of the Civil strife was gone, when its young men marched 
proudly through the streets to take their parts in the crisis; 
sent on their missions of patriotism with the feeble but sincere 
cheers of aged Confederate veterans ringing in their ears. 

With the beginnings of the 20th century, Fredericksburg 
gave visable evidence of its recovery from the wounds of war. 
Its business men had accumulated sufficient capital to revive 
trade, at least partially,- on its past scale ; additional industries 
were started, new homes and buildings sprang up and there 
was the beginning of a general and steady improvement. 

35 



A Change in Government 

In 1909 a group of progressive citizens, among whom 
one of the most earnest was the late Henry Warden, a man of 
immense usefulness, realized their ambition and the consum- 
mation of an aim for which they had fought for years, when 
the old form^ of councilmanic government was abolished in 
favor of the City Manager form, Fredericksburg being one 
of the first small cities in the country to adopt it. Since its 
inauguration, the city has prospered and improved. Well laid 
granolithic sidewalks are placed throughout its business and 
residential sections, splendid hard gravel streets, topped with 
smooth asphalt binding, have replaced the old mud roadways, 
the water system has been enlarged and improved, fire pro- 
tection increased and other municipal improvements made that 
have taken the town out of the class of sleepy provincial ham- 
lets and made of it a modern little city. New hotels of the 
finest type, business enterprises and industrial concerns have 
come to give it new life and color, but with all this it still 
retains much that is sweet and old and is filled with the charm 
and elegance of the past. 

Though it has just celebrated its two hundred and fiftieth 
birthday, the anniversary of a time when America was only 
beginning to give promise of its brilliant future, a time when 
the country was young and weak, but when manhood was 
strong and courage held high the torch of hope, Fredericks- 
burg looks forward to the future with eager longing, con- 
fident that in the mirror of its past is the story of th^ time 
to come. 



36 



Wars Worst Horrors 

Shelled by 181 guns for hours, the ioivn becomes a crumbled ruin 

Fredericksburg is the point through which the railway 
and the roads to Richmond pass, and is half way between 
Washington and the Southern city. During the Civil war 
the possession of the town was an advantage not to be despised, 
and so from the begmning the two great armies of the North 
and South were contenders for the town. 

The first attempt toward Fredericksburg was made June 
I, 1 86 1, when Federal gunboats and a small cavalry force 
were defeated, in an attempt to land troops at Aquia Creek, by 
General Daniel Ruggles, C. S. A., in command of the Depart- 
ment of Fredericksburg. This was the first skirmish of the 
war, in Virginia, and occurred nine days before "Big Bethel" 
and seven weeks after Virginia seceded. 

On the nineteenth of April, 1862, the Stafford hills were 
taken by the Federals, and on April 27th General Marsena R. 
Patrick marched troops into the town and placed it under 
military rule. General Patrick treated the citizens with con- 
sideration and under his rule there was but little complaint 
of oppression. He was, in fact, generally admired for his fair 
treatment of the populace. 

But with the coming of the conceited and inhuman Gen- 
eral Pope, who followed McClellan in command of the Federal 
army, all that was changed. From that time forward this quiet 
old city between the hills, with its splendid homes, its old 
silver and china and tapistry and paintings, its great trees' and 
broad streets, was to know every cruelty, horror, and depreda- 
tion of war. 

General Pope, driven back by the Confederates, moved 
through Fauquier and Culpeper counties to Fredericksburg, 
and immediately upon securing the town, his subordinates 

37 



In the Enemy's Hands 

scoured the city and arrested nineteen of the most prominent 
men, alleging no crime but stating frankly that it was done in 
reprisal for the arrest by the Confederates of Major Charles 
Williams of Fredericksburg, who was held in Richmond to 
prevent him from aiding the enemy. These men were sent 
to the old Capital Prison at Washington, where they were 
held from early in August to late September in 1862, and 
were then released in exchange for Major Williams and others. 
There were Rev. W. F. Broaddus,, D. D.>, James McGuire, 
Charles Welford, Thomas F. Knox, Beverly T. Gill, James H. 
Bradley, Thomas B. Barton, Benjamin Temple, Lewis Wrenn, 
Michael Ames, John Coakley, John H. Roberts, John J. Berrey, 
Dr. James Cooke, John F. Scott, Montgomery Slaughter, 
(Mayor), George H. C. Rowe, Wmi. H. Norton, Abraham 
Cox. 

Fredericksburg was evacuated in August, 1862, when the 
Northern soldiers were drawn up in line and marched out of 
town. A great burden was lifted from the community. Heavy 
explosions marked the blowing up of the two bridges. On 
September 4th, an advance guard of Confederate cavalry rode 
into the town amid shouts of welcome. 

The relief was but for a short period. On November 
loth. Captain Dalgren's (Federal) dragoons crossed the river 
above Falmouth and clattered down Main street andl met a 
small force of Confederates under Col. Critcher, who drove 
them back. But General Burnside's whole army was follow- 
ing and in a few days held the Stafford hills. 

Fredericksburg and the country immediately about it was 
fought over, marched over, shelled and ravaged and desolated. 
The town became a dreary military outpost of battered, falling 
walls and charred timbers, of soldiers, now in gray, now in 
blue. Under its streets and in' yards hundreds of dead were 
buried to be now and again, in after years, unearthed. No 
other American city ever suffered as did this formerly pros- 
perous town. 

The situation, from a military standpoint, was this: 
Southeastward of the city the Rappahannock broadens, so that 

38 



Threats of Bombardment 

it is not easily bridged, and if an army crossed, it still would 
have to get to Richmond. Northwest (and much nearer 
west than north) of the city, the Rappahannock is fordable, 
but its course is away from Richmond, and the roads to Rich- 
mond again lead back toward the rear of Fredericksburg. 

There were, therefore, but two feasible plans for the 
North to accomplish its "on to Richmond" purpose. One was 
to take Fredericksburg and with it the roads and railway to 
Richmond ; Burnside tried this. The other, to cross the river 
just above, and get in the rear of Fredericksburg, thus get- 
ing the roads and railways to Richmond; Hooker and Grant 
tried this. 

On November 20th, General Sumner peremptorily de- 
manded the surrender of the town, under threat of immediate 
bombardment, but on receiving a request from Mayor 
Slaughter, he consented to extend the time tKventy-four hours 
and sent General Patrick across the river with a message, as 
follows : 

"Gentlemen : Under cover of the houses of your town, 
shots have been fired upon the troops of my command. 
Your mills and factories are furnishing provisions and 
materials for clothing for armed bodies in rebellion 
against the authority of the Government of the United 
States. Your railroads and other means of transporta- 
tion are removing supplies to the depot of such troops. 
This condition of things must terminate; and by direc- 
tion of Major-General Burnside, commanding this army, 
I accordingly demand the surrender of this city into my 
hands, as a representative of the Government of the 
United States, at or before five o'clock this afternoon (five 
o'clock P. M. to-day). Failing an affirmative reply to 
this demand by the time indicated, sixteen hours will be 
permitted to elapse for the removal from the city of 
women and children, the sick, wounded, and aged ; which 
period having elapsed, I shall proceed to shell the town. 

39 



The Citizens Driven Out 



"Upon obtaining possession of the town, every neces- 
sary means will be taken to preserve order and to secure 
the protective operation of the laws and policy of the 
United States Government." 

While General Patrick waited from io:oo A. M. until 
7:00 P. M. (November 21) in a log house at French John's 
Wharf, the note was passed through the hands of a civic com- 
mittee who had previously met General Lee at "Snowden," 
(now the beautiful home of Mr. and Mrs. F. C. Baldwin) on 
which were : Mayor Slaughter, William A. Little and Douglas 
H. Gordon. A note from General Lee was then transmitted 
to the town officials by General J. E. B. Stuart. This Mayor 
Slaughter, Dr. Wm. S. Scott and Samuel Harrison delivered 
late in the afternoon to General Patrick. General Lee simply 
said the town was non-combatant ; that he would not occupy it, 
nor would he allow any one else to occupy it. 

Advised by General Lee, the inhabitants of the town now 
began to refugee to the rear. They went in the dark, irt a 
snow storm, afoot, in vehicles and some in a railway train, 
upon which the Northern guns opened heavy fire. They slept 
in barns, cabins' and the homes of country people, and left 
behind their silverware and fine old china, their paintings and 
portraits and every kind of property, all of which was doomed 
to destruction. 

But the town was not shelled and a few at a time many 
of the old men and the women, the boys and girls, crept back 
from impossible shelters in the country to their homes in the 
town. 

Then, twenty-two days later, at dawn of December nth, 
at a signal from the "Long Tom" on Scott's Hill, at Falmouth, 
Burnside opened on the town, now half full of residents, with 
one hundred and eighty-one guns. The guns were placed 
along Stafford Heights from the Washington Farm to Fal- 
mouth, and the whole fire was concentrated on the town, 
where walls toppled, fires sprang up and chaos reigned. 

40 



The Story of the Shelling 

Frequently the Union gunners fired a hundred guns a 
minute, round shot, case shot and shell. The quick puffs of 
smoke, touched in the center with flame, ran incessantly along 
the hills and a vast thunder echoed thirty miles away. Soon 
the town was under a pall of smoke, through which lifted 
the white spires of the churches. 

"The scenes following the bombardment," says John 
Esten Cooke, in "J^^^son," "were cruel. Men, women and 
children were driven from town. Hundreds of ladies and chil- 
dren were seen wandering homeless over the frozen highways, 
with bare feet and thin clothing. Delicately nurtured girls 
walked hurriedly over the various roads, seeking some friendly 
roof to cover them." 

The following article by one who, as a little girl, was in 
Fredericksburg on the day of the bombardment, catches a 
glimpse of it in a personal way that is more convincing than 
pages of description. 

The Shelling of Fredericksburg 

Recollections of Mrs Frances Bernard Goolrick (Mrs. 
John T. Goolrick) who was a little girl at that time. 

During the stormy winter of 1862, my mother, a widow 
with three little children, was still in her native place, Freder- 
icksburg, Virginia. Many of the inhabitants had long since 
left for Richmond and other points farther south, for the 
town lying just between the hostile armies was the constant 
scene of raids and skirmishes, and no one knew at what instant 
everything might be swept away from them. My mother, 
separated from her relatives by the fortunes of war, decided 
that it would be best for her to remain where she was and 
thus probably save the household effects she had gathered 
around her. The strongest arguments had been used by 
friends in town and relatives at a distance to induce her to 
leave for a place of more safety, but so far without avail, and 

41 



Guns Open On The Town 

though we were often alarmed by raids into town, as yet we 
had sustained no injuries of any description. In the fall the 
Federal army, under General Burnside, was on the Stafford 
hills just across the river, and it was constantly rumored that 
the town would be bombarded; but lulled to an insecure rest 
by many false alarms, the people had but little faith in these 
rumors. 

On the nth of December, one of the most cruel and 
heartless acts of the war was to be perpetrated, the town 
of Fredericksburg was bombarded, the roar of guns be- 
ginning at daybreak, with no one in it but old or invalid 
men and helpless women and children. As quick as thought, 
we were up and dressed, and my aunt being very rapid in her 
movements, was the first to reach the cellar. My mother had 
long since had some chairs and other pieces of furniture placed 
there in case of an emergency. I being the first child dressed, 
ran out into the yard, and as' I turned towards the cellar steps 
I beheld, it seemed to me, the most brilliant light that I had 
ever seen; as I looked, my aunt reached out her arms and 
pulled me, quivering with terror, into the cellar. A shell had 
exploded at the back of the garden, in reality at some distance, 
but to me it was as if it had been at my very feet. The family 
soon assembled, including the servants; we had also additions 
in the way of two gentlemen from Stafford, Mr. B. and Mr. 
G., who had been detained in town,' and a Lieutenant Eustace, 
of Braxton's battery, who was returning from a visit to his 
home. Also a colored family. Uncle Charles and Aunt Judy, 
with a small boy named Douglas and two or three other chil- 
dren. The couple had been left in charge of their mistress* 
home (she being out of town), and with no cellar to their 
house they were fain to come into ours. 

And now the work of destruction began, and for long 
hours the only sounds that greeted our ears were the whizzing 
and moaning of the shells and the crash of falling bricks and 
timber. My mother and we three children were seated on a 

42 



Hiding From The Shells 

low bed with Ca'line, a very small darkey, huddled as close 
to us children as she could get, trying to keep warm. Mr B. 
and Mr. G. occupied positions of honor on each side of the 
large old-fashioned fire-place, while my aunt was cowering 
inside, and every time a ball would roll through the house or 
a shell explode, she would draw herself up and moan and 
shiver. Lieutenant Eustace was a great comfort to my mother, 
and having some one to rely on enabled her to keep her courage 
up during the terrible ordeal of the cannonading. Although 
my brother, sister and myself were all frightened, we could 
not help laughing at the little darkey children who were posi- 
tively stricken dumb with terror, old Aunt Judy keeping them 
close to her side and giving them severe cuffs and bangs if 
they moved so much as a finger. 

My aunt, as well as the rest of us, now began to feel the 
pangs of hunger, and Aunt B. ordered the cook in the most 
positive manner to go up to the kitchen and make some coffee, 
telling her that she knew she was afraid and we would all be 
satisfied with only a cup of coffee for the present. I believe 
Aunt Sally would have gone without a word if my mother 
had told her, but this, from an outsider, she could not bear. 
(Aunt B. was my uncle's wife and the family servants had 
seen very little of her.) She, therefore, demurred, and Aunt 
B. calling her a coward, she arose in a perfect fury, and with 
insubordination written upon her frorn her rigid backbone to 
her flashing eyes, informed Aunt B. "dat she warn no mo' a 
coward dan de res' of 'em, but she didn't b'lieve Mars Gen'l 
Lee hisself cud stan' up making coffee under dat tornady." 
Just about this time Uncle Charles sprawled himself out upon 
the floor in ungovernable terror, and called upon the Lord to 
save him and his family. "Pray for us all. Uncle Charles," 
screamed my aunt, her voice just heard above the roar of 
artillery. The cannonading was now something fearful. Our 
house had been struck twice and the shrieking balls and burst- 
ing bombs were enough to appall the stoutest heart. My aunt 
being brave in speech, but in reality very timorous, and Uncle 
Charles "a bright and shining light" among the colored per- 

43 



Cannons Stop For Dinner 

suasion, she again requested him to pray. Aunt Judy by this 
time began to bewail that she had "lef old Miss cow in the 
cowshed," and mistaking the moaning of the shells for the 
dying groans of the cow, she and Douglas lamented it in true 
darkey fashion. Uncle Charles meanwhile was very willing 
to pray, but Aunt Judy objected strenuously, saying, "dis ain't 
no time to be spendin' in pra'ar. Char's Pryor, wid dem bumb 
shells flying over you and a fizzlin' around you, and ole Miss 
cow dyin' right dar in your sight." But when the house was 
struck for the third time, Aunt B., in despairing accents; 
begged Uncle Charles to pray, so he fell upon his knees by an 
old barrel, in the middle of the cellar floor, upon which sat a 
solitary candle, whose flickering light lit up his hushed and 
solemn countenance, and in tremulous tones with many inter- 
jections, offered up a prayer. 

My mother thought of my father's portrait, and afraid 
of its being injured she determined to get it herself, and bring 
it into the cellar. Without telling anyone* of her intentions, 
she left the cellar and went up into the parlor; the portrait 
was hanging just over a sofa, on which she stood to take it 
down. She had just reached the door opposite the sofa when 
a shell came crashing through the wall, demolishing the sofa 
on Which she had so recently stood, as well as many other 
articles of furniture. She reached the cellar, white and tremb- 
ling, but with the portrait unhurt in her arms. 

At one o'clock the cannonading suddenly ceased and for 
one hour we were at liberty to go above and see the damage 
that had been done. My mother's first efforts were directed 
towards getting a lunch, of which we were all sorely in need. 
With the aid of one of the frightened servants she succeeded 
in getting a fire and having some coffee made and with this, 
together with some cold bread and ham, we had a plentiful 
repast. 

What a scene met our eyes ; our pretty garden was strewn 
with cannon balls and pieces of broken shells, limbs knocked 

44 



"Refugeeing" in Winter 

off the trees and the grape arbor a perfect wreck. The house 
had been damaged considerably, several large holes torn 
through it, both in front and back. While we were deploring 
the damage that had been done. Lieutenant Eustace returned 
in breathless haste to say that he had just heard an order from 
General Lee read on Commerce Street, saying that the women 
and children must leave town, as he would destroy it with hot 
shell that night, sooner than let it fall into the hands of the 
enemy, who were rapidly crossing the river on pontoon bridges. 
They urged my mother to take her children and fly at once 
from the town. After resisting until the gentlemen in despair 
were almost ready to drag her from her dangerous situation, 
she finally consented to leave. The wildest confusion now 
reigned, the servants wringing their hands and declaring they 
could not go without their "Chists," which they all managed 
to get somehow, and put upon their heads, but the gentlemen 
insisted so that we had only time to save our lives. They 
would not even let my mother go back into the house to get 
her purse or a single valuable. So we started just as we were; 
my wrapping, I remember, was an old ironing blanket, with 
a large hole burnt in the middle. I never did find out whether 
Aunt B. ever got her clothes on, for she stalked ahead of us. 
wrapped in a pure white counterpane, a tall, ghostly looking 
figure, who seemed to glide with incredible rapidity over the 
frozen ground. * * * 

We plodded along under a heavy cross fire, balls falling 
right and left of us. We left the town by way of the old 
"plank road," batteries of Confederates on both sides. The 
ground was rough and broken up by the tramping of soldiers 
and tlie heavy wagons and artillery that had passed over it, 
so that it was difficult and tiresome to walk, and the sun got 
warm by this time and the snow was melting rapidly; the 
mud was indescribable." 

We had now reached the "Reservoir," a wooden building 
over "Poplar Spring," and about a mile from town. I had 
already lost one of my shoes several times, because of having 

45 



Pillage and Plunder 

no string in it, and my little brother insisted on giving me 
one of his, so we sat down by the "Reservoir" feeling very 
secure, but were terribly alarmed in a few moments by a ball 
coming through the building and whizzing very close to our 
ears. No, this would not do, so on we went, footsore and 
weary; sometimes we would meet a soldier who would carry 
one of us a short distance. All of our servants, except Ca'line, 
who was only seven years old, had taken some other direction. 
When we got about two miles from town we overtook many 
other refugees; some were camping by the way, and others 
pressing on, some to country houses which were hospitably 
thrown open to wanderers from home, and others to "Salem 
Church," about three miles from Fredericksburg, where there 
was a large encampment. Our destination was a house not 
far from, "Salem Church," which we now call the "Refuge 
House." Exhausted, we reached the house by twilight, found 
there some friends who had been there some weeks, and who 
kindly took us into their room' and' gave us every attention. 
And so great was our relief to feel that we had escaped from 
the horror of that day, that such small matters as having to 
sleep in the room with a dozen people, having no milk and no 
coffee, our principal diet consisting of corn bread, bacon and 
sorghum, seemed only slight troubles." 

From the end of the bombardment, and at the first inva- 
sion of the town by Union forces, until they were driven 
across the river again, Fredericksburg was mercilessly sacked. 
All day, from the houses, and particularly from the grand 
old homes that distinguished the town, came the noise of 
splintering furniture, the crash of chinaware, and — now and 
then — a scream. On the walls hung headless portraits, the 
face gashed by bayonets. Bayonets ripped open mattresses 
and the feathers heaped in piles or blew about the streets, 
littered with women's and men's clothing and letters and 
papers thrown out of desks. Mahogany furniture warmed 
the despoilers, and ten thousand were drunk on pilfered liquors. 
Windows and doors were smashed, the streets full of debris, 

46 



A Carnival of Horrors 

through which drunken men grotesquely garbed in women's 
shawls and bonnets, staggered; flames rose in smoke pillars 
here and there, and the provost guard was helpless to control 
the strange orgy of stragglers and camp followers who were 
wild with plunder lust, amid the dead and wounded strewn 
about. A fearful picture of war was Fredericksburg in those 
December days from the eleventh to the! thirteenth. 

To the citizens of Fredericksburg, those days meant bank- 
ruptcy, for their slaves walked away, their stores and churches 
werd battered, their silverware stolen, their homes despoiled 
and their clothing worn or thrown away. Wealthy men were 
to walk back a few days later to their home town as paupers ; 
women and children were to come back to hunger and dis- 
comfort in bleak winter weather; and all this was the result 
of what General Leei said was an entirely "unnecessary" bom- 
bardment and of days of pillage, which no earnest attempt to 
stop was made. Fredericksburg was the blackest spot on 
Burnside's none too effulgent reputation. 

From the army, from Southern cities and from individ- 
uals money for relief came liberally, and in all nearly $170,000. 
was contributed to aid in feeding, clothing and making hab- 
itable homes for the unfortunate town's people. A good many 
carloads of food came, too, but the whole barely relieved the 
worst misery, for the $170,000. was Confederate money, with 
its purchasing power at low mark. 



47 



The First Battle 

When, at Mayrt's Heights and Hamilton's Crossing, luar claimed her sacrifice 

Following the shelling of Fredericksburg, on December 
nth, the Union army began to cross on pontoons. On the 
1 2th of December, under cover of the guns and of fog, almost 
the whole Union army crossed on three pontoons, one near the 
foot of Hawk street, another just above the car bridge, and 
one at Deep Run. On the morning of December 13th, General 
Burnside's army was drawn up in a line of battle from oppo- 
site Falmouth to Deep Run. It was, say they who saw the 
vast army with artillery and cavalry advanced, banners flying 
and the bayonets of their infantry hosts gleaming as the fog 
lifted, one of the most imposing sights of the war. 

General Burnside actually had in line and fought during 
the day, according to his report, 100,000 effective men. 

General Lee had 57,000 effectives, ranged along the hills 
from Taylc , past Snowden, past Marye's' Heights, past Hazel 
Run and on to Hamilton's Crossing. 

■ => There were preliminary skirminishes of cavalry, light 
artillery and infantry. The enemy tried to "feel" General 
Lee's' lines. 

Then, about 10 o'clock, they advanced against the hills 
near Hamilton's Crossing, where Jackson's Corps was posted, 
in a terrific charge across a broad plateau between the river and 
the hills to within a quarter of a mile of the Confederate posi- 
tion, where they broke under terrific artillery and musketry 
fire. At one o'clock 55,000 men, the whole of Franklin's and 
Hooker's Grand Divisions advanced again in the mightiest 
single charge of the Civil War. Stuart and Pelham (he earned 
that day from Lee the title of "The Gallant Pelham") raked 
them with light artillery, but nevertheless they forced a wedge 
through Jackson's lines and had won the day, until Jackson's 
reserves, thrown into the breach, drove them out and threw 

48 



At Hanvilton's Crossing 

back the whole line. As dusk came on, Stuart and Pelham 
counter charged, advancing their guns almost to the Bowling 
Green road, and Jackson prepared to charge and "drive them 
into the river," but was stopped by the heavy Union guns on 
Stafford hills. 

During the fiercest part of the battle, "Stonewall" Jackson 
was on the hill just on the Fredericksburg side of Hamilton's 
Crossing where Walker's artillery was posted, but toward 
evening, fired with his hope of driving the Union forces across 
the river, he rode rapidly from place to place, sending out 
frequent orders. One of these he gave to an aide. 

"Captain, go through there and if you and your horse 
come out alive, tell Stuart I am going to advance my whole 
line at sunset." It was this charge, mentioned above, which 
failed. 

Late that night, rising from the blankets which he shared 
with a Chaplain, Jackson wrote some orders. While he was 
doing this, an orderly came and standing at the tent flap, said, 
"General Gregg is dying. General, and sent me to say to you 
that he wrote you a letter recently in which he iis'ed expressions 
he is sorry for. He says he meant no disrespect by that letter 
and was only doing what he thought was his duty-. 11 „ nopes 
you will forgive him." 

Without hesitation, Jackson, who was deeply stirred, 
answered, "Tell General Gregg I will be with him directly." 

He rode through the woods back to where the brave 
Georgian was dying, and day was about to break when he 
came back to his troops. 

General Maxey Gregg, of Georgia, was killed in action 
here, as were a number of other gallant officers. 

Jackson held the right of the Confederate lines all day 
with 26,000 men against 55,000. His losses were about 3,415, 
while Hooker and Franklin lost 4,447. Meanwhile, against 
Marye's Heights, the left center of the line, almost two miles 
away, General Burnside sent again and again terrific infantry 
charges. 

49 



The Charge at Marye's Heights 

The hills just back of Fredericksburg are fronted by an 
upward sloping plane, and at the foot of that part of the 
hills called Marye's Heights is a stone wall and the "Sunken 
Road" — as fatal here for Burnside as was the Sunken Road 
at Waterloo for Napoleon. On Marye's Heights was the 
Washington Artillery, and a number of guns — a veritable 
fortress, ready, as General Pegram said, "to sweep the plans 
in front as close as a fine-tooth comb." At the foot of the 
heights behind the stone wall were Cobb's Georgians, Ker- 
shaw's South Carolinians, and Ransom's and Cobb's North 
Carolinas — nine thousand riflemen, six deep, firing over the 
front lines' shoulders, so that, so one officer wrote "they 
literally sent bullets in sheets." 

Against this impregnable place, Burnside launched charge 
after charge, and never did men go' more bravely and cer- 
tainly to death. This was simultaneous with the fighting at 
Hamilton's Crossing. 

Meagher's Irish Brigade went first across the plain. 
Detouring from Hanover street and George street, they formed 
line of battle on the lowest ground, and with cedar branches 
waving in their hats, bravely green in memory of "the ould 
sod" they swept forward until the rifles behind the wall and 
the cannon on the hill decimated their ranks; and yet again 
they formed and charged, until over the whole plain lay 
the dead, with green cedar boughs waving idly in their hats. 
The Irish Brigade was practically exterminated, and three 
more charges by larger bodies failed, although one Northern 
officer fell within twenty-five yards of 'the wall. The day 
ended in the utter defeat of the Union Army, which withdrew 
into Fredericksburg at night. 

In front of the wall 8,217 Union soldiers were killed or 
wounded, and in the "Sunken Road" the Confederates lost 
1,962. 

The total Union k)ss in the whole battle of Fredericksburg 
was 12,664 and the Confederates' loss 5,377. 

General J. R. Cook, of the Confederate Army, was killed 
almost at the spot where Cobb fell. General C. F. Jackson 

50 



The Death of General Cobb 

and General Bayard, of the Union Army, were killed, the latter 
dying in the Bernard House, "Mansfield," where Franklin had 
his headquarters. 

General T. R. R. Cobb, the gallant commander of the 
Georgians', fell mortally wounded at the stone wall, and tradi- 
tion has said that he was killed by a shell fired from the lawn 
of his mother's home, a dramatic story that is refuted by evi- 
dence that he was killed by a sharpshooter in a house at the 
left and in front of the "Sunken Road." 

But the brilliant Georgian, who aided in formulating the 
Confederate Constitution, was killed within sight of the house, 
where, more than forty years before, the elder Cobb met, and 
in which he married, she who was to be the General's mother. 
Journeying late in 1819 North' to attend Congress, Senator 
John Forsythe, who was bom in Fredericksburg, and Senator 
Cobb, Sr., were guests of Thomas R, Rootes, Esq., at Federal 
Hill, a great house that sits at the edge of the town, over- 
looking the little valley and Marye's Heights, and there began 
a romance that led to marriage of Miss Rootes and Senator 
Cobb, in the mansion, in 1820. From the spot where he stood 
when he died, had not the smoke of a terrific battle screened 
it, their son, the Georgian General, could have clearly seen the 
windows of the room in which his parents were married. 

General Cobb died in the yard of a small house, just at the 
edge of the "Sunken Road," ministered to in his last moments, 
as was many another man who drank the last bitter cup that 
day, by an angel of mercy and a woman of dauntless courage, 
Mrs. Martha Stevens. 

Her house was in the center of the fire, yet she refused 
to leave it, and there between the lines, with the charges rolling 
up to her yard! fence and tons of lead shrieking about her, 
Mrs. Stevens stayed all day, giving the wounded drink, and 
bandaging their wounds until every sheet and piece of clothing 
in the house had been used to bind a soldier's hurts. At 
times the fire of Northern troops was concentrated on her house 
so that General Lee, frowning, turned to those about him and 
said : "I wish those people would let Mrs. Stevens alone." 

51 



Lee Spares Old "Chatham" 

Nothing in the war was finer than the spirit of this 
woman, who stayed between thei lines in and about her house, 
through the planl<s of which now and then a bullet splintered 
its way, miraculouly living in a hail of missiles where, it 
seemed, nothing else could live. 

During the battle at Fredericksburg, General Lee stood 
on "Lee's Hill," an eminence near Hazel Run, and between 
Marye's Heights and Hamilton's crossing. Looking across 
the Rappahannock he could see "Chatham," the great winged 
brick house where General Burnside had headquarters, and 
where, under the wide spreading oaks. General Lee had won 
his bride, the pretty Mary Custis. The fine old place was now 
the property of Major Lacy, who rode up to Lee and said: 
"General there are a group of Yankee officers on my porch, 
I do not want my house spared. I ask permission to give 
orders to shell it." General Lee, smiling, said: "Major, I do 
not want to shell your fine old house. Besides, it has tender 
memories for me. I courted my bride under its trees." 

In all this saturnalia of blood, it is a relief to find some- 
thing in lighter vein, and in this case it is furnished by two 
Irishmen, Meagher and Mitchell. This little incident takes 
us back some years to "Ould Ireland." Here three young 
Irishmen, Charles Francis Meagher, John Boyle O'Reily and 
John Mitchell, known respectively, as the Irish Orater, Poet 
and Patriot, fired by love for Free Ireland and Home Rule, 
earned exile for themselves and left Ireland hurriedly. O'Reily 
settled in Boston and became a well-known poet and a cham- 
pion of the North. Meagher settled in New York, and at 
the outbreak of the War organized the Irish Brigade, of 
which he was made Brigadier-General. Mitchell settled in 
Richmond, where he became the editor of the Richmond En- 
quirer, and, as a spectator, stood on Marye's Heights during 
the battle and witnessed the desperate charges and bloody re- 
pulses of his old friend, Meagher ; and as he watched he unbur- 
dened his soul. His refrain varied between exultation at 
the sight of a fine fight and execration, in picturesque and 

52 



The Good Samaritan 



satisfying language, of the "renegade Irishman," his one-time 
friend, who would fight against the very principle, the ad- 
vocacy of which had brought them exile from Ireland. 

Mitchell's grandson was John Purroy Mitchell, mayor 
of New York City, who died in the Aviation service during 
the late war. 

There was another soul at the Battle of Fredericksburg 
whose spirit of mercy to the suffering was stronger than the 
dread of death, and in the Chapel of the Prince of Peace at 
Gettysburg, is a tablet to him, Dick Kirkland — the ''Angel 
of Maryes' Heights" — a gracious memorial placed by the 
Federal survivors of that fight. 

Dick Kirkland, a Southern soldier, who all day long had 
fought behind the Stone Wall, laid aside all animosity when 
night fell and the bitter cries arose in the chill air from the 
wounded and dying on the plain. The pitiful calls for "water, 
water" so moved the young South Carolinian that he asked 
his commanding officer to be allowed to relieve the sufferers. 
His request was at first refused, but when he begged, permis- 
sion was given, and taking as many full canteens as he could 
carry, he went out among the pitiful forms dotting the field, 
while the shells and rifle fire still made it most dangerous, 
administering to the enemy. He was a good Samaritan and 
unafraid, who is affectionately remembered by a grateful foe. 
Kirkland was more merciful to the wounded Federals than was 
their commander, for it was forty-eight hours before General 
Burnside could swallow his pride and acknowledge defeat by 
applying for a truce. In the interval, during forty-eight hours 
of winter weather while the wounded lay unsheltered, chill 
winds sweeping over them, the wailing and the agonized crying 
slowly died out. Every wounded man who could not crawl 
or walk died, and when the truce came more than four 
thousand bodies were piled in front of the "Sunken Road." 

At night of December 1 3th, Burnside was utterly defeated 
and after quietly facing the Southern forces all day on the 
14th, he was' practically forced to abandon his battle plans by 

53 



A Critique of the Armies 

the protests of his Generals, who practically refused to charge 
again, and moved his army across the river at night. 



In the whole action at Fredericksburg, General Lee used 
but 57,000 men, while official reports state that the Norhern 
forces "in the fight" numbered 100,000 As bearing on this 
(and most assuredly with no intention to belittle the gallant 
men of the Federal Army, who fought so bravely) the condi- 
tion of Burnside's Army, due to the policy of his government 
and to Major-General Hooker's insubordination, is to be con- 
sidered. An estimate of this army by the New York Times 
shows to what pass vacillation had brought it. The' Times 
said after Fredericksburg. 

"Sad, sad it is to look at this suberb Army of the Poto- 
mac — the match of which no conqueror ever led — this 
incomparable army, fit to perform the mission the country has 
imposed upon it — paralyzed, petrified, put under a blight and 
a spell. (You see men who tell you that they have been in 
a dozen battles and have been licked and' chased every time — 
they would like to chase once to see how it "feels." This begins 
to tell on them. Their splendid qualities, their patience, faith, 
hope and courage, are gradually oozing out. Certainly never 
were a graver, gloomier, more sober, sombre, serious and 
unmusical body of men than the Army of the Potomac at 
the present time." 

On the other hand, thus spoke the correspondent of the 
London Times of the "tatterdermalion regiments of the 
South" : 

"It is a strange thing to look at these* men, so ragged, 
slovenly, sleeveless, without a superfluous ounce of flesh on 
their bones, with wild, matted hair, in mendicants rags, and 
to think, when th^ battle flags go to the front, how they can 
and do fight. There is only one attitude in which I should 
never be ashamed of you seeing my men, and that is when they 
are fighting.' These were General Lee's words to me the first 
time I ever saw him." 

54 



At Chancellorsville 

The Struggle in the Pine Woods luhen death struck at Southern hearts 

From the close of the battle at Fredericksburg in Decem- 
ber 1862, until the spring of 1863, General Burnside's Army 
of the Potomac and General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia 
lay in camp ; the first on the north and the second on the south 
bank of the Rappahannock. The little town, now fairly well re- 
populated by returned refugees, lay between the hosts. The 
Northern lines practically began at Falmouth, where General 
Daniel Butterfield had headquarters, and at which spot young 
Count Zeppelin and his assistants were busily arranging to 
send up a great Observation Balloon with a signalling outfit. 
Southward, Lee's army stretched over thirty-three miles, from 
the fords of the Rappahannock, where the hard riding cavalry- 
men of Stuart and W. H. F. Lee watched, to Port Royal, Jack- 
son's right. 

Burnside's headquarters were the Phillips house and Chat- 
ham, (recently owned by the famous journalist, Mark Sullivan 
and where he and Mrs. Sullivan made their home for some 
years). Hooker, part of the time, was at the Phillips house, 
Lee in a tent, near Fredericksburg, while General Jackson 
had headquarters first in an oittbuilding at Moss Neck, now the 
home of Count d'Adhemar and later in a tent. It was here 
that he became fond of little Farley Carbin, who came every 
day to perch on his knee and receive little presents from him. 
One day he had nothing to give her, and so, ere she left, he 
tore the gold braid from the new hat that was part of a hand- 
some uniform just given him by General "J^b" Stuart, and 
placed it like a garland on her pretty curly head. During the 
winter the General, who from the beginning of the war never 
slept at night outside his army's camp, nor had an hour's leave 
of absence, saw for the first time since he left Lexington, and 
for next to the last time on earth, his wife and little daughter, 

55 



Christmas at the Front 

whom he so fervently loved. They spent some weeks near 
him at Moss Neck. 

Chri.stmas Eve came. In the Southern camp back of the 
hills down the river road, up towards Banks Ford, out at 
Salem Church, and even in the town, hunger and cold were the 
lot of all. General Lee, wincing at the sufferings of his *'tat- 
terdermalion" forces, wrote and asked that the rations of his 
men be increased, but a doctor-inspector sent out by the often 
futile Confederate Government reported that the bacon ration 
of Lee's army — one-half a pound a day, might be cut down, 
as "the men can be kept alive on this." General Lee himself 
wrote that his soldiers were eating berries, leaves, roots and 
the bark of trees to "supplement the ration," and although at 
this time the Confederate Government had a store of bacon 
and corn meal that would have fed all its armies a half year, 
Lee's ragged soldiers starved throughout the winter. It is 
worthy of note here that when Lee's starving army moved, 
foodless, toward that last day at Appomattox, they marched 
past 50,000 pounds of bacon alone, which the Confederate com- 
missary, at Mr. Jefferson Davis' orders, burned next day. 

We spoke of Christmas Eve, when in the long lines of the 
two camps great fires beamed, voices rose in songs and hymns, 
and bands played. Late in the evening, when dusk had settled, 
a band near Brompton broke out defiantly into "Dixie," and 
from the Washington Farm a big band roared out "The Battle 
Hymn." There was a pause and then, almost simultaneously, 
they began "Home, Sweet Home," and catching the time 
played it through together. When it was done, up from the 
camps of these boys who were to kill and be killed, who were to 
die in misery on many a sodden field, rose a wild cheer. 

Hardly could two great armies ever before have lain for 
months within sight of each other as thesei two did in almost 
amicable relations. There was no firing; the cannon-crowned 
hills were silent. Drills and great reviews took place on either 
bank of the river and in the Confederate ranks there went on 
a great religious "revival" that swept through the organization. 

56 



The Coming of Spring 

Along the banks of the river where pickets; patrolled by day, 
and their little fires flamed in the night, trading was active. 
From the Union bank would come the call softly : 

"Johnny." 

"Yea, Yank." 

"Got any tobacco?" 

"Yes, want 't trade?" 

"Half pound of coffee for two plugs of tobacco, Reb." 

" 'right, send 'er over." 

They traded coffee, tobacco, newspapers and provisions, 
sometimes wading out and meeting in mid-river, but' as the 
industry grew, miniature ferry lines, operated by strings, began 
to ply. 

Soldiers and Generals passed and repassed in the streets of 
Fredericksburg, where wreckage still lay about in confusion, 
houses presented dilapidated fronts, and only a few of the citi- 
zens attempted to occupy their homes. 

Once, in midwinter, the armies became active when Burn- 
side attempted to move his army and cross the river above 
Fredericksburg; but only for a few days, for that unfortunate 
General's plans were ruined by a deluge and his army "stuck 
in the mud." General Hooker took his place. 

About April 26 Hooker's great army, "The finest army on 
the planet," he bombastically called it, moved up the river and 
began crossing. It was his purpose to get behind Lee's lines, 
surprise him and defeat him from the rear. On April twenty- 
ninth and thirtieth, Hooker got in position around Chancellors- 
ville, in strong entrenchments, a part of his army amounting 
to 85,000 men, but the Confederate skirmishers were already 
in front of him. 

It was the Northern Commander's plan for Sedgwick, 
left at Fredericksburg with 40,000, to drive past Fredericks- 
burg and on to Chancellorsville, and thus to place the Southern 
forces between the two big Federal armies and crush it. 

57 



The First Aerial Scout 

Before the great battle of Chancellorsville began, this 
message came down from the first balloon ever successfully 
used in war, tugging at its cable two thousand feet above the 
Scott house, on Falmouth iHeights : 

Balloon in the Air, April 29, 1863. 

Major-General Butterfield, 

Chief of Staff, Army of the Potomac. 

General : The enemy's line of battle is formed in the edge of the 

woods, at the foot of the heights, from opposite Fredericksburg to some 

distance to the left of our lower crossing. Their line appears quite thin, 

compared with our forces. Their tents all remain as heretofore, as far 

as I can see. 

T. C. S. LOWE, 

Chief of Aeronauts. 

But the force did not "remain as heretofore" long, though 
the tents were left to confuse the enemy, for on April 29 Gen- 
eral Anderson moved to Chancellorsville, followed on April 30 
by General McLaws ; and under cover of darkness "Stonewall 
Jackson" moved to the same place that night, with 26,000 men. 
On May i, then, Hooker's 91,000 at Chancellorsville were 
being pressed by Lee's army of 46,000. 

General Early's command of 9,000 and Barksdale's 
brigade of 1,000 and some detached troops were left to defend 
Fredericksburg against Sedgwick's corps, which was now 
crossing the Rappahannock, 30,000 strong. At 11 A. M., May 
I, General Lee's army, with Jackson's corps on his left, began 
the attack at Chancellorsville, of which this dispatch speaks: 

Balloon in the Air, May i, 1863. 

Major-General Sedgwick, 

Commandmg Left Wing, Army of the Potomac. 

General : In a northwest direction, about twelve miles, an engage- 
ment is going on. 

T. C. S. LOWE, 
Chief of Aeronauts. 

58 



Fight at Chancellorsville 

Before evening of May i Hooker's advance guard was 
driven back, and the Confederate forces swept on until within 
one mile of Chancellorsville, and there, stopped by a "position 
of great natural strength" (Greneral Lee) and by deep 
entrenchments, log breastworks and felled trees, they ceased 
to progress. It was evident at nightfall that with his inferior 
force the Southern commander could not drive Hooker, and 
that if he failed to do so, Sedgwick would drive back the small 
force in Fredericksburg and would come on from Fredericks- 
burg and crush him. 

Jackson and Lee bivouaced that night near where the 
Old Plank Road and the Furnace Road intersect, and here 
formulated their plans for the morrow. From Captain Murray 
Taylor, of General A. P. Hill's staff, they learned that a road 
existed, by advancing down which (the Furnace Road) then 
turning sharply and marching in a "V" Jackson's plan to turn 
Hooker's right might be carried out, and at Captain Taylor's 
suggestion they sent for "Jack" Hayden, who could not be 
gotten at once, and who, being an old man, was "hiding out" 
to avoid "Yankee" marauders. 

Lee and Jackson slept on the ground. Jackson, over whom 
an officer had thrown his overcoat, despite his protests, waited 
until the officer dozed, gently laid the coat over him and slept 
uncovered, as he had not brought his own overcoat. Later, 
arising chilled, he sat by the fire until near dawn, when his 
army got in motion. 

When Jackson moved aiway in the early hours of May 2 
there were left to face Hooker's 91,000 m^n on the Federal 
left, Lee's 14,000 men, attacking and feinting, and nowhere 
else a man. Jackson was moving through tangled forests, 
over unused roads, and before 5 o'clock of that memorable 
afternoon of May 2 he had performed the never-equalled feat 
of moving an army, infantry and artillery of 26,000 men 
sixteen miles, entirely around the enemy, and reversing his 
own army's front. He was now across the Plank Road and 
the Turnpike, about four miles from Chancellorsville, facing 

59 



Jackson's Stroke of Genius 

toward Lee's line, six miles away. And Hooker was between 
them! 

It was 5:30 when Jackson's command (Colston's and 
Rhodes' Divisions, with A. P. Hill in reserve) gave forth the 
rebel yell and sweeping along through the woods parallel to 
the roads, fell on Hooker's right while the unsuspecting army 
was at supper. The Federals fled in utter disorder. 

Before his victorious command, Jackson drove Hooker's 
army through the dark pine thickets until the Federal left had 
fallen on Chancellorsville and the right wing was piled up and 
the wagon trains fleeing, throwing the whole retreating army 
into confusion. At 9 o'clock he held some of the roads in 
Hooker's rear, and the Northern army was in his grasp. 

Hill was to go forward now. He rode to the front with 
his stafif, a short distance behind Jackson, who went a hundred 
yards ahead of the Confederate lines on the turnpike to investi- 
gate. Bullets suddenly came singing from the Northern lines 
and Jackson turned and rode back to his own lines. Suddenly 
a Confederate picket shouted "Yankee cavalry," as he rode 
through the trees along the edge of the Plank Rbad. Then a 
volley from somewhere in Lane's North Carolina ranks poured 
out, and three bullets struck Jackson in the hand and arms. 
His horse bolted, but was stopped and turned, and Jackson was 
aided by General Hill to dismount Almost all of Hill's stafif 
were killed or wounded. 

There was trouble getting a litter, and the wounded man 
tried to walk, leaning on Major Leigh and Lieutenant James 
Power Smith. The road was filled with men, wounded, retreat- 
ing, lost from their commands. Hill's lines were forming for a 
charge and from these Jackson hid his face — they must not 
know he was wounded. A litter was brought and they bore the 
sufferer through the thickets until a fusilade passed about them 
and struck down a litter-bearer, so that the General was thrown 
from the litter his crushed shoulder striking a pine stump, and 
now for the first time, and last time, he groaned. Again they 

60 




cq 



O 



-J 



:5 ■« 






-J 



c< 



The Death of "Stonewall' 

t)ore him along the Plank Road until a gun loaded with can- 
ister swept that road clear, and the litter-bearers fled, leaving 
General Jackson lying in the road. And here, with infinite 
heroism, Lieutenant Smith (see sketch of life) and Major 
Leigh lay with their bodies over him to shield him from 
missiles. 

Later the wounded officer was gotten to a field headquar- 
ters near Wilderness Run, and Dr. Hunter McGuire and assist- 
ants amputated one arm and bound the other arm and hand. 
Two days later he was removed to Mr. Chandler's home, near 
Guineas, where, refusing to enter the mansion because he feared 
his presence might bring trouble on the occupants should the 
Federals come, and because the house was crowded with other 
wounded, he was placed in a small outbuilding, which stands 
today. The record of his battle against death in this little 
cabin, his marvelous trust in God and his uncomplaining days 
of suffering until he opened his lips to feebly say : "Let us pass 
over the river and rest under the shade of the trees" is a 
beautiful story in itself. He died from pneumonia, which 
developed when his wounds were beginning to heal. The 
wounds only would not have killed him and the pneumonia 
probably resulted from sleeping uncovered on the night before 
referred to. Mrs. Jackson and their little child. Dr. Hunter 
McGuire, Lieutenant James Power Smith, his aide-de-camp; 
Mrs. Beasley and a negro servant were those closest to him 
in his dying hours. 

Hill succeeded Jackson, and in twenty minutes was 
wounded and Stuart succeeded him, and fighting ceased for 
the night. 

On May 3, General Lee attacked again, uniting his left 
wing with Stuart's right, and a terrific battle took place that 
lasted all day, and at its end Hooker's great army was defeated 
and dispirited, barely holding on in their third line trenches, 
close to the river ; that worse did not befall him was due to 
events about Fredericksburg. ( We may note here that Hooker 
lost at Chancellorsville 16,751 men while Lee lost about 
1 1 ,000. ) 

61 



Battle at Salem Church 

For Sedg^vick, with 30,000 men, took Marye's Heights at 
I o'clock of this day, losing about 1,000 men, and immediately 
General Brooks' division (10,000) marchd out the Plank 
Road, where on each successive crest, Wilcox's Alabamians, 
with a Virginia battery of two' guns (4,000 in all) disputed 
the way. At Salem Church, General Wilcox planted his troops 
for a final stand. 

Here at Salem Church the battle began when Sedgwick's 
advance guard, beating its way all day against a handful of 
Confederates, finally formed late in the afternoon of May 3, 
prepared to throw their column in a grand assault against the 
few Confederates standing sullenly on the pind ridge which 
crosses the Plank Road at right angles about where Salem 
Church stands. Less than 4,000 Alabama troops, under Gen- 
eral Wilcox, held the line, and against these General Brooks, 
of Sedgwick's corps, threw his 10,000 men. 'They rushed 
across the slopes, met in the thicket, and here they fought des- 
perately for an hour. Reinforcements reached the Confed- 
erates at sundown, and next morning General Lee had come 
with Anderson's and McLaw's commands, and met nearly the 
whole of SedgAvick's command, charging them late in the 
afternoon of May 4, and driving them so that, before day- 
break, they had retreated across the river. Then, turning 
back to attack Hooker, he found the latter also crossing the 
river. 

Unique in the history of battles are the two monuments 
which stand near Salem Church, erected by the State of New 
Jersey and gallantly uttering praise of friend and foe. 

They mark the farthest advance of the New Jersey troops. 
The first, on the right of the Plank Road as one goes from 
Fredericksburg to Chancellorsville, is a monument to the Fif- 
teenth New Jersey troops, and one one side is inscribed: 

"The survivors of the Fifteenth New Jersey Infantry honor their 
comrades who bore themselves bravely in this contest, and bear witness 
to the valor of the men who opposed them on this field." 

62 



Monument at Salem Church 

The other monument stands on the ridge at Salem 
Church, close to the road, and about where the charge of the 
Twenty-third New Jersey shattered itself against the thin 
lines of Wilcox's Alabamians. It stands just where these two 
bodies of troops fought hand to hand amidst a rolling fire of 
musketry, bathing the ground in blood. In the end the Con- 
federates prevailed, but when the State of New Jersey erected 
the monument they did not forget their foe. It is the only 
monument on a battlefield that pays homage alike to friend and 
enemy. 

The monument was unveiled in 1907, Governor E. Bird 
Gubb, who led the Twenty-third New Jersey, being the prin- 
cipal speaker. Thousands were present at the ceremonies. 

On one side of the splendid granite shaft is a tablet, on 
which is engraved : 

"To the memory of our heroic comrades who gave their lives for 
their country's unity on this battlefield, this tablet is dedicated." 

And on the other side another tablet is inscribed : 

"To the brave Alabama boys, our opponents on this battlefield, whose 
memory we honor, this tablet is dedicated." 



63 



Two Great Battles 

The Jearful fire siuept Wilderness, and the Bloody Angle 
at Spottsylvania 

After Chancellorsville, the Confederate Army invaded the 
North, and Hooker left the Stafford Hills to follow Lee into 
Pennsylvania. When Gettysburg v^as over, both armies came 
back to face each other along the Rappahannock, twenty to 
thirty miles above Fredericksburg, 

Now, Chancellorsville is in a quiet tract of scrub pine 
woods, twelve miles west of Fredericksburg, The Plank Road 
and the Turnpike run toward it and meet there, only to diverge 
three miles or so west, and six miles still further west (from 
Chancellorsville) the two roads cross Wilderness Run — the 
Turnpike crosses near Wilderness Tavern, the Plank Road 
about five miles southward. 

Two miles from Wilderness Tavern on the Turnpike is 
Mine Run. Here General Meade, now commanding the North- 
ern Army, moved his forces, and on Decefmber i, 1863, the two 
armies were entrenched. But after skirmishes, Meade, who 
had started toward Richmond, decided not to fight and re- 
treated with the loss of 1,000 men. 

In the spring General Grant, now commander-in-chief, 
began to move from the vicinity of Warrenton, and on May 
4, 1864, his vast army was treading the shadowed roads 
through the Wilderness. It was one of the greatest armies 
that has ever been engaged in mobile warfare; for, by official 
records, Grant had 141,000 men. 

Lee's army — he had now 64,000 men — was moving in 
three columns from the general direction of Culpeper. 

Grant intended to get between Led and Richmond, but 
he failed, for the Confederate commander met him in the 
tangled Wilderness, and one of the most costly battles of the 

64 



"General Lee to the Rear" 

war began — a battle than can barely be touched on here, for, 
fought as it was in the woods, the lines wavering and shifting 
and the attack now from one side, now from the other, it 
became so involved that a volume is needed to tell the story. 

It is sufficient to say that the first heavy fighting began 
along the Turnpike near Wilderness Run, on May 4 and 5, 
and that shortly afterwards the lines were heavily engaged 
on each side of, and parallel to, the Plank Road. Northward, 
on the Germanna road, charges and countercharges were made, 
and on May 6, Sedgwick's line finally broke and gave ground 
before a spirited charge by part of Ewell's corps — the bri- 
gades of Gordon, Johnston and Pegram doubling up that 
flank. 

The Northern left (on the Plank Road), which had 
been driven back once, rallied on the morning of May 6, and 
in a counter-attack threatened disaster to the Confederates 
under Heth and Wilcox who (this was in the forenoon) were 
driven back by a terrific -charge from the Federal lines near 
Brock Road. Expected for hours, Longstreet's march-worn 
men came up at this critical moment along Plank Road. Head- 
ing this column that had been moving since midnight was a bri- 
gade of Texans and toward these General Lee rode, calling: 

"What troops are these?" 

The first answer was simply: 

"Texans, General." 

"My brave Texas boys, you must charge. You must 
drive those people back," the Confederate commander said, so 
earnestly that the Texas troops began to form while Lee per- 
sonally rallied the men iwho by now were pouring back from the 
front. Then as Longstreet's men began to go forward Lee 
rode with them until the line paused while the cry arose from 
all directions "General Lee, go to the rear. Lee to the rear." 
Officers seized his bridle. "If you will go to the rear, General," 
said an officer waving his hand toward the lines "these men 
will drive 'those people' back." His promise was made good, 

65 



Grants Advance Defeated 

for as Lee drew back, Longstreet's men — General Longstreet 
himself had now reached the head of the column — rushed 
through the woods, driving the advancing Federals back, and 
piercing their lines in two places. Before a second and heavier 
assault the whole line fell back to entrenchments in front of 
Brock Road, and soon the junction of that road and Plank 
Road was within Longstreet's reach, and the Northern line 
threatened with irretrievable disaster. 

And now, for the second time, just as a great victory was 
at hand, the Southern troops shot their leader. , General Long- 
street was advancing along the Plank Road with General Jen- 
kins, at the head of the latter's troops, when — mistaken for 
a body of the enemy — they were fired into. General Long- 
street was seriously wounded, General Jenkins killed, and the 
forward movement was checked for several hours, during 
which the Federals reinforced the defenses at the junction. 

At night of May 6 Grant had been defeated of his pur- 
pose, his army driven back over a mile along a front of four 
miles, and terrific losses inflicted — for he lost in the Wilder- 
ness 17,666 men, while the Confederate losses were 10,641. 
General Hays (Federal) was killed near the junction of Plank 
and Brock Roads. 

Fire now raged through the tangled pines and out of 
the smoke through the long night came the screams of the 
wounded, who helplessly waited the coming of the agonizing 
flames. Thousands of mutilated men lay there for hours and 
hours feeling the heated breath of that which was coming 
to devour them, helpless to' move, while the fire swept on 
through the underbrush and dead leaves. 

The battle had no result. Grant was badly defeated, 
but, unlike Burnside, Hooker and Meade, he did not retreat 
across the Rappahannock. Instead, pursuing his policy and 
figuring that 140,000 men against 60,000 men could fight 
until they killed the 60,000, themselves loosing two! to one, 
and still have 20,000 left, he moved "by the flank." 

66 



The Day of "Bloody Angle' 

By the morning of May 8 Grant's army, moving by the 
rear, was reaching Spotsylvania Court House by the Brock 
Road and the Chancellorsville Road. General Lee has no 
road to move on. But on the night of May 7 his engineers 
cut one through the Wilderness to Shady Grove Church and 
his advance guard moving over this intercepted Warren's 
corps two miles from the Court House and halted the advance. 
By the night of May 8, Lee's whole army was in a semi-circle, 
five or six miles in length, about the Court House. The cen- 
ter faced northward and crossed the Fredericksburg Road. 

Grant attacked feebly on May 10, and again on May 11, 
and because of the lightness of these attacks Lee believed 
Grant would again move "by the flank" toward Richmond. 
But before dawn on May 12 Hancock's corps struck the apex 
of a salient just beyond the Court House, breaking the lines 
and capturing General Edward Johnson and staff and 1,200 
men. 

In this salient, now known as the ''Bloody Angle," 
occurred one of the most terrible hand-to-hand conflicts of 
modern warfare. From dawn to dawn, in the area of some 
500 acres which the deep and well-fortified trenches of the 
angle enclosed, more than 60,000 men fought that day. Artil- 
lery could hardly be used, because of the mixture of the 
lines, but nowhere in the war was such rifle fire known. The 
Northern forces broke the left of the salient, took part of 
the right, and, already having the apex, pushed their troops 
through. The! lines swayed, advancing and retreating all day. 

Toward evening the gallant Gordan advancing from base 
line of the Angle, with his whole command pouring in rifle fire, 
but mostly using the bayonet, drove back the Federals slowly, 
and at night the Confederates held all except the apex. But 
General Lee abandoned the salient after dark, and put his 
whole force in the base line. Here General Grant hesitated 
to attack him. 

All along the lines about Spotsylvania desperate fighting 
occurred that day, but the battle was distinctly a draw. Both 

67 



Our Part in Other Wars 

armies lay in their trenches, now and then skirmishing, until 
May 1 8, when Grant withdrew, again moving "by the flank,'' 
this time toward Milford, on the R., F. & P. Railroad. 

Near the Bloody Angle, on the Brock Road, where it 
is intersected by a cross road, General Sedgwick was killed 
by a sharpshooter concealed in a tree. He fell from his horse, 
and although his aides summoned medical help he died almost 
immediately. The tree from which it is said the sharpshooter 
killed him is still standing. 

General Lee had at Spotsylvania about 55,000 men and 
General Grant about 124,000. 

The Federal loss was 15,577. The Confederate loss was 
11,578. A large part of these, probably 15,000, fell in the 
Bloody Angle.* 

In the War of 18 12 only one company was formed here, 
commanded by Colonel Hamilton. This company did really 
very little service. The fear, that the enemy would come up 
the Rappahannock River to attack this place was never realized. 



In the war with Mexico it is not recorded that any dis- 
tinctive company was enrolled here, although a number of its 
young men enlisted, and one of the Masons of Gunston was 
the first man killed, in the ambushj of the First Dragoons on 
the Mexican border. General Daniel Ruggles won honor in 
this war. 

In the Civil War, every man, "from the cradle to the 
grave," went to the front voluntarily and cheerfully for the 
cause. They could be found in such commands as the Thirtieth 
Virginia Regiment of Infantry, commanded by Colonel Robert 
S. Chew, in which, among the many officers were: Hugh 
S. Doggett, Robert T. Know, James S. Knox, Edgar Crutch- 
field, John K. Anderson, Edward Hunter, Thomas F. Proctor 
and many others. Of these it is sufficient to say that at all 
times they loyally did their duty, and this may also be said 
*Figures, see official reports. 

68 



In the Great World War 

of the Fredericksburg Artillery, sometimes called Braxton's 
Battery, axnong the officers of which were Carter Braxton, 
Edward Marye, John Pollock, John Eustace and others 
Some of "our boys" united themselves with the "Bloody 
Ninth" Virginia Cavalry, commanded by that prince of cal- 
varimen, Colonel Thomas W. Waller, of Stafford. Others of 
the town, voluntarily enlisted in many other branches. 

Charles T. Goolrick commanded a company of infantry 
which was organized and equipped by his father, Peter Gool- 
rick. Later his health gave way and his brother, Robert 
Emmett Goolrick, a lieutenant in the company, took command. 



When the War with Spain was declared, the old Wash- 
ington Guards, which has done its duty at all times in the life 
of the town, came to the front. Captain Maurice B. Rowe 
was its commander at that time; Revere, first lieutenant, and 
Robert S. Knox, now of the U. S. Army, second lieutenant. 
It is pertinent to state that in the War with Spain there was 
no draft, and there were more volunteers than there was work 
to do. The company marched away with great hopes, but 
spent almost the whole period of the war at Camp Alger, near 
Washington. 

When the Great World War came on, Fredericksburg 
sent two organized companies to the front. The first, the 
Washington Guards, under Captain Gunyon Harrison, and the 
second, the Coast Artillery Company, under Captain Johnson, 
No names can be recorded, for after the companies left, the 
draft men went in large bodies, and many won promotion and 
distinguished service medals. 

On July 4, 19 18, the town gave to the World War sol- 
diers a sincere and royal "welcome home," in which the people 
testified to their gratitude to them. In the iwar, our boys had 
added luster to the name of the town, and splendid credit to 
themselves. The joy of the occasion and the pleasure of it 
were marred by the fact that so many had died in France. 

69 



Hef'oes of Early Days 

The Old Toiun f^njes the first Commander , first Admiral, 
and Great Citizens 

Fredericksburg claims George Washington, who although 
born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, February 22, 1732, 
spent most of his boyhood on the "Ferry Farm," the home of 
his father, Augustine Washington, situated on a hill directly 
opposite the wharf which juts out from the Fredericksburg 
side of the river. Here it is that Parson Weems alleged he 
threw a stone across the river. 

He was educated in Fredericksburg and Falmouth, a 
village of gray mists and traditions, which lords it over Fred- 
ericksburg in the matter of quaintness and antiquity, but oblig- 
ingly joins its fortunes to those of the town by a long and 
picturesque bridge. 

His tutor in Falmouth was a "Master Hobbie," and while 
this domine was "strapping the unthinking end of boys," 
George was evading punishment by being studiou.^ and 
obedient. He also attended the school of Mr. Marye, at St. 
George's Church. It was in this church that the Washing- 
tons worshipped. 

Shy in boyhood and eclectic in the matter of associates, 
he had the genius for real friendships. 

The cherry tree which proclaimed him a disciple of truth 
has still a few flourishing descendants on the old farm, and 
often one sees a tourist cherishing a twig as a precious souve- 
nir of the ground hallowed by the tread of America's most 
famous son. It was on this farm that George was badly 
hurt while riding (without permission) his father's chestnut 
colt. 

We take Washington's career almost for granted, as y:v 
watch the stars without marveling at the forces that drive them 

70 



Washington's Boyhood Home 

on, but when we do stop to think, we are sure to wonder at 
the substantial greatness, the harnessed strength of will, the 
sagacity and perception, which made him the man he was. 

He left school at sixteen, after having mastered geometry 
and trigonometry, and having learned to use logarithms. 

He became a surveyor. His brother, Lawrence, who at that 
time owned Mt. Vernon, recognized this; in fact, got him, in 
1740, to survey those wild lands in the valley of the Alle- 
ghany belonging to Lord Fairfax. 

He was given a commission as public surveyor after this. 
It is hard to realize that he was only sixteen! We will not 
attempt ta dwell upon his life in detail. We know that at 
nineteen he was given a military district, with the rank of 
major, in order to meet the dangers of Indian depredations 
and French encroachments. His salary was only 150 pounds 
a year. 

On November 4, 1752, he was made a Mason in Fred- 
ericksburg Lodge, No. 4. The Bible used in these interesting 
ceremonies, is still in possession of the lodge, and is in a fine 
state of preservation. Washington continued a member -of 
this lodge until he died, and Lafayette was an honorary mem- 
ber. 

At twenty-one, as a man of "discretion, accustomed to 
travel, and familiar with the manners of the Indians," he 
was sent by Governor Dinwiddie on a delicate mission which 
involved encroachments by the French on property claimed by 
the English. During all these years he came at close intervals 
to visit his mother, now living in her own house in Fredericks- 
burg, which was still his home. 

After his distinguished campaign against the French army 
under M. De Jumonville in the region of Ohio, where he 
exposed himself with the most reckless bravery, he came to 
Mt. Vernon which he inherited from his brother, Augustus. 
married Martha Custis, a young widow with two children and 
large landed estates, and became a member of the House of 
Burgesses, punctually attending all the sessions. 

71 



When "George" got Arrested 

Indeed, one finds oneself eagerly looking for an occa- 
sional lapse in this epic of punctuality. It would humanize 
him. Anyway, one is glad to see that he was a patron of the 
arts and the theatre, and his industry in keeping day-books, 
letter-books, contracts and deeds is somewhat offset by the 
fact that he played the flute. 

He seldom spoke in the House of Burgesses, but his 
opinion was eagerly sought and followed. We will pass over 
the time when Dunmore prorogued the "House," and of the 
events which ended in Washington's being made Commander- 
in-Chief of the Continental Army. 

We are, perhaps, more interested in another visit to Fred- 
ericksburg to see his mother, after he had resigned his com- 
mission. From town and country, his friends gathered to 
give him welcome and do him honor. The military turned 
out, civic societies paraded, and cannon boomed. 

In between his career as statesmen and as soldier, we 
strain our eyes for a thread of color, and we discover that he 
was once brought before a justice of the peace and fined for 
trading horses on Sunday. And again, that he was sum- 
moned before the grand jury and "George William Fairfax, 
George Washington, George Mason," and half dozen others 
were indicted for "not reporting their wheeled vehicles, accord- 
ing to law." 

It is worth noting, too, that while her son, George, was 
leading the American army, Mary, his mother, was a partisan 
of the King; a tory most openly. "I am sure I shall hear some 
day," She told some one, calmly, in her garden, "that they 
have hung George." 

Nevertheless, his first two messages, after he crossed the 
Delaware and won signal victories, were to Congress and his 
mother. And after the hard-riding courier had handed her 
the note, and the gathering people had waited until she laid 
down her trowel, and wiped the garden earth from her hands, 
she turned to them and said : "Well, George has crossed the 
Delaware and defeated the King's troops at Trenton." 

72 



Washington Advises Lovers 

The stern fact of the Revolution, which cast upon George 
Washington immortal fame and which was followed by his 
election to the Presidency of the United States, is softened 
somewhat by a letter on love written to his daughter, Nellie 
Custis. A few excerpts are as follows : 

"When the fire is beginning to kindle, and the heart grow- 
ing warm, propound these questions to it. Who' is this invader ? 
Is he a man of character; a man of sense? For be assured, 
a sensible woman can never be happy with a fool. Is his for- 
tune sufficient to maintain me in the manner I have been accus- 
tomed to live? And is he one to whom my friends can have 
no reasonable objection?" 

And again, "It would be no great departure from the 
truth to say that it rarely happens otherwise than that a 
thorough paced coquette dies in celibacy, as a punishment for 
her attempts to mislead others by encouraging looks, words 
and actions, given for no other purpose than to draw men on 
to make overtures that they may be rejected." 

The letter ends with a blessing bestowed on the young 
lady to whom is given such sensible advice. That this letter 
is characterized by an admirable poise, cannot be denied. 

George Washington died at Mt. Vernon, December 4, 
1799. He upheld the organization of the, American state 
during' the first eight years of its existence, amid the storms 
of interstate controversy, and gave it time to consolidate. 

No other American but himself could have done this — 
for of all the American leaders he was the only one whom men 
felt differed from themselves. The rest were soldiers, 
civilians. Federalists or Democrats, but he — was Washington. 

Almost immediately after appearing before the public 
session of Congress, at which he resigned his commission as 
commander-in-chief of the Continental armies, an act of 
which Thackeray speaks as sheathing his sword after "a life 
of spotless honor, a purity unreproached, a courage indomitable 
and a consummate victory," Washington came to Fredericks- 

73 



Evidence of Citizenship 

burg to visit his mother. He was the great hero of 
the age, the uncrowned King of America and from all over 
the section crowds flocked to do him honor. The occasion was 
of such importance that the city did not* trust the words of 
welcome to a single individual, but called a meeting of the 
City Council at which a short address was adopted and pre- 
sented to Washington upon his arrival by William McWil- 
liams, then mayor. 

While beautifully worded to show the appreciation of his 
services and respect for his character and courage, the 
address of welcome contains nothing of historical significance 
except the line "And it affords us great joy to see you once 
more at a place which claims the honor of your growing 
infancy, the seat of your amiable parent and worthy relatives," 
which establishes Washington's connection with Fredericks- 
burg. 

In reply, General Washington said: 

Gentlemen : 

With the greatest pleasure I receive in the character of a private 
citizen the honor of your address. To a benevolent providence and the 
fortitude of a brave and virtuous army, supported by the general exertion 
of our common country, I stand indebted for the plaudits you now bestow. 
The reflection, however, of having met the congratulating smiles and 
approbation of my fellow citizens for the part I have acted in the cause 
of Liberty and Independence cannot fail of adding pleasure to the other 
sweets of domestic life; and my sense of them is heightened by their 
coming from the respectable inhabitants of the place of my growing 
infancy and the honorable mention 'which is made of my Irevered 
mother, by whose maternal hand, (early deprived of a father) I was 
led to manhood. For the expression of personal affection and attachment, 
and for your kind wishes for my future welfare, I offer grateful thanks 
and my sincere prayers for the happiness and prosperity of the corporate 
town of Fredericksburg. 

Signed : George Washington. 

This address is recorded in the books of the town council 
and is signed in a handwriting that looks like that of Wash- 
ington. 

As it is known that Washington, lived at Fredericksburg 
from the time he was about six years of age until early 

74 



The Story of John Paul 

manhood, the expression "growing infancy" is unfortunate, 
but later, when Mayor Robert Lewis, a nephew of Washington, 
delivered the welcome address to General Lafayette when he 
visited Fredricksburg in 1824 the real case was made more 
plain when he said : 

"The presence of the friend of Washington excites the tenderest 
emotions and associations among a people whose town enjoys the dis- 
tinguished honor of having been the residence of the Father of his 
Country during the days of his childhood and youth," and in reply 
General Lafayette said: 

"At this place, Sir, which calls to our recoMections several among the 
most honored names of the Revolutionary War, I did, many years ago, 
salute the first residence of our paternal chief, receiving the blessings of 
his venerated mother and of his dear sister, your own respected mother." 
Later the same day, at a banquet in the evening, given in his honor, 
Lafayette offered the following sentiment, "The City of Fredericksburg — 
first residence of Washington — may she more and more attain all the 
prosperity which independence, republicanism and industry cannot fail 
to secure." 

John Paul Jones. 

Of all the men whose homes were in Fredericksburg, 
none went forth to greater honor nor greater ignominy than 
John Paul Jones, who raised the first American flag on the 
masthead of his ship, died in Paris and was buried and slept 
for 113 years beneath a filthy stable yard, forgotten by the 
country he valiantly served. 

He came to Fredericksburg early in 1760 on "The Friend- 
ship," as a boy of thirteen years. Born in a lowly home, he was 
a mere apprentice seaman, and without doubt he deserted his 
ship in those days, when sea life was a horror, to come to 
Fredericksburg and join his brother, William Paul, whose 
home was here, and who is buried here. There is some record 
of his having been befriended by a man in Carolina, and tradi- 
tions that he left his ship in a port on the Rappahannock after 
killing a sailor, and walked through the wilderness to Freder- 
icksburg. Neither tradition is of importance; the fact is that 
he came here and remained four years during the developing 
period of his life. 

75 



Jones' American Home Here 

William Paul had immigrated to Fredericksburg from the 
Parish of Kirkbeam, Scotland, (where he and his brother, 
John, were born), about 1760, had come to Fredericksburg 
and conducted a grocery store and tailor shop on the corner 
of Caroline and Prussia streets. William died here in 1773. 
and is buried in St. George's Church Yhrd. In his will he 
left his property to sisters in the Parish of Kirkbeam, Scot- 
land. 

Alexander McKenzie, in his life of John Paul Jones, says, 
after referring to the fact that William Paul is buried in Fred- 
ericksburg: "In 1773 he went back to Fredericksburg to 
arrange the affairs of his brother, William Paul," and John 
Paul Jones himself wrote of Fredericksburg: "It was the home 
of my fond election since first I saw it." The Legislature of 
Virginia decided in settling William Paul's estate that John 
Paul Jones was a legal resident of Fredericksburg. 

Obviously, then, Fredericksburg was the great Admiral's 
home, for, though not born here, he chose it when he came to 
America. 

When he first reached the little town on the Rappahannock 
he went to work for his brother, William Paul and one can 
surmise that he clerked and carried groceries and messages to 
the gently regarding their smart clothes for his brother. 

The Rising Sun Tavern was then a gathering place for 
the gentry and without doubt he saw them there. He may 
well have learned good manners from their ways, good lan- 
guage from hearing their conversation and "sedition" from 
the great who gathered there. We may picture the lowly boy, 
lingering in the background while the gentlemen talked and 
drank punch around Mine Host Weedon's great fire, or lis- 
tening eagerly at the counter where the tavern-keeper, who was 
to be a Major-General, delivered the mail. 

Certainly John Paul Jones was a lowly and uneducated 
boy at 13. He left Fredericksburg after four years to go to 
sea again, and in 1773 came back to settle his brother's estate, 
and remained here until December 22, 1775, when he received 
at Fredericksburg his commission in the Navy. 

7^ . 



Front Cabin Boy to Courtier 

John Paul Jones' story is more like romance than history. 
Beginning an uncouth lad, he became a sea fighter whose 
temerity outranks all. We see him aboard the Bonhomme 
Richard, a poor thing for seafaring, fighting the Serapis just 
off British shores, half of his motley crew of French and 
Americans dying or dead about him, the scruppers running 
blood, mad carnage raging, and when he is asked if he is ready 
to surrender he says : "I've just begun to fight," and by his 
will forcing victory out of defeat. He was the only American 
who fought the English on English soil. He never walked a 
decent quarter deck, but with the feeble instruments' he had, 
he captured sixty superior vessels. His ideal of manliness was 
courage. 

What of this Fredericksburg gave him no one may say, 
but it is sure that the chivalry, grace and courtliness which 
admitted him in later years to almost every court in Europe 
was absorbed from the gentry in Virginia. He did not learn 
it on merchantmen or in his humble Scotch home, and so 
he learned it here. Of him the Duchess de Chartres wrote: 

"Not Bayard, nor Charles le Temeaire could have laid his 
helmet at a lady's feet with such knightly grace." 

He won his country's high acclaim, but it gave him no 
substantial evidence. He was an Admiral in the Russian Navy, 
and after a time he went to Paris to live a few years in pov- 
erty, neglect, and bitterness. He died and was buried in Paris 
in 1792, at 45 years of age. 

He was a dandy, this John Paul Jones, who walked the 
streets of Fredericksburg in rich dress. Lafayette, Jefferson, 
and, closest of all, the Scotch physician, Hugh Mercer, were 
his friends. Slender and not tall, black-eyed and swarthy, with 
sensitive eyes, and perfect mouth and chin, he won the love 
or friendship of women quicker than that of men. 

He was buried in an old graveyard in Paris and forgotten 
until the author of this book wrote for newspapers a series of 

77 



Admiral Jones' Surgeon 

letters about him. Interest awoke and Ambassador Porter 
was directed to search for his body. How utterly into oblivion 
had slipped the youth who ventured far, and conquered always, 
is plain when it is known that it took the Ambassador six 
years to find the body of Commodore John Paul Jones. He 
found it in an old cemetery where bodies were heaped three 
deep under the courtyard of a stable and a laundry. 

Surgeon Laurens Brooke 

Surgeon Laurens Brooke, was born in Fredericksburg, 
in 1720, and was one of those who accompanied Governor 
Spottswood as a Knight of the Golden Horseshoe. He after- 
wards lived in Fredericksburg, entered the U. S. Navy as a 
surgeon and sailed with John Paul Jones on the "Ranger" 
and on the "Bon Homme Richard." At the famous battle of 
Scarborough, between the latter vessel and the "Serapis," Sur- 
geon Brooke alone had the care of one hundred and twenty 
wounded sailors; and later 'with Surgeon Edgerly, of the 
English navy, from the Tempis, performed valiant work and 
saved many lives. The surgeons were honored by Captain 
Paul Jones with a place at his mjess, and the literature of the 
period refers to Surgeon Brooke as the "good old Doctor 
Laurens Brooke." He was with Jones until the end of the 
war and spent some time at his home here when a very old 
man, some years after the Revolution. His family had a dis- 
tinguished part in the War Between the States, being repre- 
sented in the army and in the C S. Congress during that 
period. 

General Hugh Mercer 

We wonder if any one ever declined to take the advice of 
George Washington. 

Certain it is that General Hugh Mercer did not, for, at 
the suggestion of Washington, Mercer came to Fredericks- 
burg. Many Scotchmen have found the town to their liking. It 
makes them feel a sort of kinship with the country of hill- 
shadows, and strange romance. 

78 



Major General Hugh Mercer 

Mercer was born in Aberdeen in the year 1725. His 
father was a clergyman; his mother, a daughter of Sir Robert 
Munro, who, after distinguishing himself at Fontenoy and 
elsfwhere, was killed at the battle of Falkirk, while opposing 
the young ''Pretender." Hugh Mercer did not follow in 
the footsteps of his father, but linked his fortunes with 
Charles Edward's army, as assistant surgeon, fought with 
him at Culloden and shared the gloom of his defeat — a 
defeat which was not less bitter because his ears were ring- 
ing with the victorious shouts of the army of the Duke of 
Cumberland. 

To change a scene that brought sad memories. Dr. Hugh 
Mercer, in the fall of 1746, embarked for America. There, 
on the frontiers of civilization, in Western Pennsylvania, 
he spent arduous, unselfish years. He was welcomed and 
loved in this unsettled region of scattered homes. 

A rough school it was in which the doctor learned the 
lessons of life. 

In the year 1755, Mercer made his appearance in the 
ill-fated army of Braddock, which met humiliating disaster 
at Fort Duquesne. Washington's splendid career began 
here and here Mercer was wounded. Of this memorable day of 
July 9, 1755, it has been said that "The Continentals gave 
the only glory to that humiliating disaster." 

In 1756, while an officer in a military association, 
which was founded to resist the aggression of the French and 
Indians', he was wounded and forced to undergo terrible pri- 
vations. While pursued by savage foes he sought refuge 
in the trunk of a tree, around which the Indians gathered and 
discussed the prospect of scalping him in the near future. 
When they left he escaped in the opposite direction and com- 
pletely outwitted them. Then began a lonely march through 
an unbroken forest, where he was compelled to live on roots 
and herbs, and where the carcass of a rattlesnake proved 
his most nourishing meal. He finally succeeded in rejoin- 
ing his command at Fort Cumberland. In recognition of 

79 



Mercer Joins Masonic Lodge 

his sacrifices and services in tliese Indian wars, the Corpora- 
tion of Philadelphia presented him with a note of thanks 
and a splendid memorial medal. In the year 1758 he met 
George Washington and then it was that Pennsylvania lost 
a citizen. In Fredericksburg, at the time that Mercer came, 
lived John Paul Jones, and we do not doubt that they often 
met and talked of their beloved Scotland. 

During his first years in Fredericksburg, Mercer occu- 
pied a small two-story house on the southwest corner of 
Princess Anne and Amelia Streets. There he had his office 
and apothecary shop. The building is still standing. 

An Englishman, writing at this time of a visit to Fred- 
ericksburg, calls Mercer "a man of great eminence and pos- 
sessed of almost every virtue and accomplishment," truly a 
sweeping appreciation. 

He belonged to Lodge No. 4, of which George Wash- 
ington was also a member, and he occasionally paid a visit 
to Mount Vernon. 

In September, 1774, the Continental Congress met in 
Philadelphia. The war cloud was lowering, it broke, and 
when the Revolution swept the country, Mercer was elected 
Colonel of the Third Virginia Regiment. 

An approbation of the choice of Mercer was prepared 
by the county committee, which set forth the importance of 
the appointment and was an acknowledgment of his public 
spirit and willingness to sacrifice his life. 

Colonel Mercer with his men and fifes and drums 
marched away from his home, bidding good-bye to his wife 
(Isabella Gordon), whom he never saw again. 

There is an interesting story of Mercer at Williamsburg. 
Among the troops which were sent there at that time, was 
a Company of riflemen from beyond the mountains, com- 
manded by a Captain Gibson. A reckless and violent oppo- 
sition to military restraint had gained for this corps the 

80 



Mercer Quells a Mutiny 

name of "Gibson's Lambs." After a short time in camp, 
a mutiny arose among them, causing much excitement in 
the army, and alarming the inhabitants of the city. Free 
from all restraint, they roamed through the camp, threaten- 
ing with instant death any officer who /would presume to exer- 
cise any authority over them. 

At the height of the mutiny an officer was dispatched 
with the alarming tidings to the quarters of Colonel Mercer. 
The citizens of the town vainly implored him not to risk 
his life in this infuriated mob. 

Reckless of personal safety, he instantly repaired to the 
barracks of thei mutinous band and directing a general parade 
of the troops, he ordered Gibson's company to be drawn up as 
offenders and violators of the law, and to be disarmed in his 
presence. 

The ringleaders were placed under a strong guard and in 
the presence of the whole army he addressed the offenders 
in an eloquent manner, impressing on them their duties as 
citizens and soldiers, and the certainty of death if they con- 
tinued to remain in that mutinous spirit equally disgraceful 
to them and hazardous to the sacred interests they had 
marched to defend. Disorder was instantly checked and the 
whole company was ever afterward as efficient in deportment 
as any troop in the army. 

On June 5, 1776, Mercen was made Brigadier-General in 
the Continental Army. It was Mercer who suggested to 
Washington the crossing of the Delaware. Major Armstrong, 
Mercer's Aide-de-Camp, who was present at a council of 
officers, and who was (with Mercer on that fateful night, is 
authority for this statement. 

We, somehow, see the army of the colonists poorly clad, 
many of them barefoot, without tents, with few blankets, and 
badly fed. In front of them is Cornwallis, with his glittering 
•hosts, and we can almost hear the boast of General Howe, 
that Philadelphia would fall when the Delaware froze. He 

81 



Death on The Battlefield 

did not know Washington ; and Mercer's daring was not reck- 
oned with. We wonder if ever a Christmas night was so 
filled with history as that on which Washington, with the 
intrepid Mercer at his side, pushing through that blinding 
storm of snow and fighting his way through the floating 
ice, crossed the Deleware with the rallying cry of "victory or 
death," and executed the brilliant move which won for him 
the Battle of Trenton. 

Near Princeton, Washington's army was hemmed in by 
Cornwallis in front and the Delaware in the rear. After a 
consultation at Mercer's headquarters it was determined to 
withdraw the Continental forces from the front of the enemy 
near Trenton, and attack the detachment then at Princeton. 
The pickets of the two armies were within two hundred yards 
of each other. In order to deceive the enemy, campfires were 
left burning on Washington's front line and thus deceived, 
the enemy slept. 

A woman guided the Continental army on that night 
march. A detachment of two hundred men, under Mercer, 
was sent to seize a bridge at Worth's Mill. The night had been 
dreary; the morning was severely cold. Mercer's presence was 
revealed at daybreak. General Mahood counter-marched his 
regiment and crossed the bridge at Worth's Mill before Mercer 
could reach it. The British troops charged. The Colonials 
were driven back. General Mercer dismounted and tried 
vainly to rally his men. While he was doing this, he was 
attacked by a group of British troops, who, with the butts of 
muskets, beat him down and demanded that he surrender. He 
refused. He was then bayoneted and left for dead on the 
battlefield. Stabbed in seven different places, he did not expire 
until January 12, 1777. 

Washington finally won the Battle of Princeton, but 
Mercer was a part of the price he paid. The battles of Tren- 
ton and Princeton were the most brilliant victories in the 
War of the Revolution. 

82 



Sir Lends Littlepage 



At Fredericksburg a monument perpetuates Mercer's 
fame. At the funeral in Philadelphia 30,000 people were 
present, and there his remains rest in Laurel Hill Cemetery. 

The St. Andrew's Society, which he joined in 1757, 
erected a monument to his memory and in the historical paint- 
ing of the Battle of Princeton, by Peale Mercer is given a 
prominent place. The states of Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Vir- 
ginia and New Jersey have, by an act of Legislature, named 
a county "Mercer," and on October i, 1897, a bronze tablet 
to his memory was unveiled at Princeton, N. J. We have not 
the space to relate all of his illustrious life, but somewhere 
there is a poem, the last lines of which voice the sentiment 
of his countrymen. 

"But he, himself, is canonized, 
If saintly deeds such fame can give; 

As long as liberty is prized, 
Hugh Mercer's name shall surely live." 

?^ Sir Lewis Littlepage 

In the possession of a well-known man of Richmond, Va., 
is a large gold key. 

It is vastly different from the keys one sees these days, 
and inquiry develops that it was once the property of one of the 
most picturesque characters in America — a man who began 
his life in the cornfields of Hanover County, Va.,. in 1753, 
and was swept by the wave of circumstance into the palace 
of a King. 

The atmosphere of old William and Mary College, where 
Lewis Littlepage was graduated, after the death of his father, 
gave a mysteriously romantic note to the beckoning song of ad- 
venture, which finally became a definite urge, when the youth, 
after residing in Fredericksburg, listened to the advice of his 
guardian, Benjamin Lewis, of Spotsylvania County, who 
placed him with John Jay, the American Minister at Madrid. 

83 



The Poet Takes The Sword 

Six months later, Jay, in a letter to Benjamin Lewis, said 
of the seveteen-year-old lad: 

"I am much pleased with your nephe|w, Lewis Littlepage, 
whom I regard as a man of undoubted genius, and a person 
of unusual culture." 

And a few months after this we discover that the well- 
known traveler, Mr. Elekiah Watson, has an entry in his diary 
which reads : 

"At Nantes I became acquainted with Lewis Littlepage, 
and although he is but eighteen years of age, I believe him 
to be the most remarkable character of the age. I esteem him 
a prodigy of genius." 

In Madrid, Littlepage got into financial straits, owing to 
the fact that his allowance did not reach him, and the next 
glilmpse we get of him is through the smoke of battle at Fort 
Mahon, iwhere in 1781, as a member of the force under the 
Duke de Crillion, he was painfully wounded while charging 
the Turks. 

In 1872, en route to Madrid to join Mr. Jay, he heard that 
de Crillion was preparing to' storm Gibraltar, and, believing 
himself in honor bound to follow the fortunes of his chief, he 
wrote Mr. Jay that he must turn again to arms. 

From that day forward he was a soldier, a diplomat, 
a courtier — the elected friend of Kings and Princes. 

iHe aided in storming Gibraltar and left his ship only 
when it had burned to the water's edge. He was highly 
recommended to the King for his gallantry, and went back to 
Paris with de Crillion to become a brilliant figure at court 
and in the salons. 

Europe knew him, but America refused him even a small 
commission, though Kings wrote to our Congress in his behalf. 

He met Lafayette at Gibraltar; in fact, accompanied him 
to Spain. Then, after considerable travel in European coun- 
tries, he again encountered Prince Nassau, who was his brother 
at arms in de Crillion's forces, became his aide-de-camp and, 

84 



When Polands Star Flamed 

together they found happiness in travel. They sought the 
bright lights o»f gay capitals and followed mysterious moon 
tracks on the Danube river. 

At the Diet of Grodno, in 1784, where he went with 
Nassau, he met Stanislaus Augustus, King of Poland. He 
captivated the King; and in a brilliant ball room, Stansilaus 
offered him a permanent service at his court. 

Within a year he was chamberlain and secretary to the 
cabinet of His Majesty, and for years he was practically the 
ruler of the empire. 

In 1787, at Kiva, he made a treaty with Catherine, Em- 
press of Russia, and became her intimate friend. 

He was a special and secret envoy from Poland to the ses- 
sions of the grand quadruple alliance in France. Later we see 
him leading a division of the army of Prince Potempkin across 
the snow-clad steppes of Russia, and a few months after, he 
was marching at the head of the Prince's army through the 
wild reaches of Tartary. Again, under Prince Nassau, we find 
him commanding a fleet against the Turks at Oczacon. 

Shortly after, he was a special high commissioner to 
Madrid. His mission completed, he was ordered to return 
to Russia for the revolution of 1791, and now he served as 
aide-de-camp and Major-General. 

In 1794, when the Polish patriot, Kosciusco, headed a 
revolution, Littlepage answered his summons and fought 
through to the storming of Prague. 

Stanislaus held him the greatest of his generals and his 
aides and when the King was captured by the Russians, Little- 
page, tired of the broils of European politics, caftne home to 
America. 

When Littlepage was first in Poland, the place was gay 
and laughter-loving. An atmosphere of high culture and lit- 
erary achievements made a satisfactory entourage for the ill- 
fated people. He lived happily there and loved a princess of 
North Poland. There were starlight meetings and woodland 

85 



'Ah, But he Had His Memories 

strolls, vows of faith and the pain of renunciation, when for 
diplomatic reasons she was forced to endure another alliance. 
Littlepage's reputation and splendid appearance; her beauty 
and the love they bore each other and, finally, her death, made a 
background of red romance, against which he is silhouetted in 
one's memory. 

That Lewis Littlepage was a poet of no mean ability was 
" a fact too well known to be disputed. The last verse of a poem 
written by him and inspired by the death of the woman he 
loved reads : 

"Over there, where you bide — past the sunset's gold glory. 
With eyes that are shining, and red lips apart, 
Are you waiting to tell me the wonderful story, 
That death cannot part us — White Rose of my Heart." 

It is said that Littlepage had more honors and decorations 
showered upon him than any other American in history. 

Go to the old Masonic cemetery in Fredericksburg, and 
in a far corner, where the wild vines and the hardy grass strug- 
gle for mastery, you may see a legend inscribed upon a large 
flat stone: This is the tomb of Lewis Littlepage. For the 
multitude, it is simply an unpleasant finale to the life of a 
well known man. 

To the imaginative, it starts a train of thought — a play 
of fancy. One sees the rise of the star of Poland. Gay youths 
and maids pass and repass to the sound of music and laughter. 
The clank of a sword sounds above the measured foot fall on 
a polished floor. A soldier passes in all the bravery of uni- 
form. It is General Littlepage silently going to an audience 
w^ith the King. The massive doors open without a challenge, 
for as a passport to the palace, on the uniform of this soldier 
glitters a large gold key — the gift of Stanislaus. 

Suddenly the scene changes. Amid the surging hosts and 
in the thick of the bloody clash at Prague, when the anguish 
of uncertainty was crumbling the, courage of a kingdom, a 
man is seen, riding with reckless abandon. Tearing through 

86 



General George Weedon 



&' 



the lines and holding aloft the tattered standard of Poland, 
comes Littlepage of Virginia. With the rallying cry of his 
adopted land, he gathers up his troops and gloriously defends 
the flag he loves. Our eyes again stray to the legend on the 
tomb : Disillusionment ! 

His return to his old home! His death! We see this 
also, 'but with this is the knowledge that he lived greatly, and 
in his ears, while dying, sounded again, the shout of victory, 
while his heart held the dream of the old romance. 

•V 
Gen. George Weedon 

Among the first men in America to "fan the flames of 
sedition," as an English traveler said of him long before the 
war, was Mine Host George Weedon, keeper of the Rising 
Sun Tavern, Postmaster, and an Irish immigrant. At his 
place gathered all the great of his day, spending hours dicing 
and drinking punch. 

Over and over among these men — Washington, Mason, 
Henry, the Lees, Jefferson and every Virginia gentleman of 
that section, George Weedon heard discussion of the Colo- 
nies' problems, and he forcibly gav6 vent to his opinions. 

Time and again he expressed the idea of freedom before 
others had thought of more than protest. His wild Irish talk 
in the old Rising Sun Tavern helped to light the torch of 
liberty in America. 

When war came, Weedon was elected Lieutenant-Colonel 
of the First Virginia, of which Hugh Mercer was chosen 
Colonel. August 17. 1776, he became its Colonel, and on 
February 24, 1777, he was made a Brigadier-General. 

In the Battle of Brandywine, General Weedon's division 
rendered conspicuous service, when they checked the pursuit 
of the British and saved our army from rout. He commanded 
brilliantly at Germantown. Wherever he fought, his great 
figure and stentorian voice were prominent in the conflict. 

87 



A Song For the Yuletide 

He admired Washington and his fellow-generals. It 
was not because of these, but because he thought Congress 
to have treated him unfairly about rank, that he left the Army 
at Valley Forge. He re-entered in 1780, and in 1781 was 
given command of the Virginia troops, which he held until 
the surrender of Yorktown, where he played an important 
part. 

George Weedon was the first President of the Virginia 
Society of the Cincinnati, a fraternity of Revolutionary offi- 
cers which General Washington helped to organize, and this 
was, indeed, a singular honor. He was a member of the 
Fredericksburg Masonic Lodge, of which Washington was 
also a member. After the war, he lived at "The Sentry Box," 
the former home of his gallant brother-in-laW, General 
Mercer. 

General Weedon was a man of exuberant spirits, loud of 
voice and full of Irish humor. He wrote a song called "Christ- 
mas Day in '76," and on each Yuletide he assembled at his 
board his old comrades and fr.iends, and, while two negro boys 
stood sentinel at the door, drank punch and roared out the 
verses : 

"On Christmas Day in '76 
Our ragged troops with bayonets fixed, 

For Trenton marched away. 
The Delaware ice, the* boats below 
The lights obscured by hail and snow, 
But no signs of dismay." 

Beginning thus, the brave Irishman who verbally and physi- 
cally fought among the foremost for America for over 
thirty years, told the story of Washington's crossing the 
Delaware, vividly enough, and every Christmas his guests 
stood with him and sang the ballad.* 



*See Goolrick's "Life of Mercer." 

88 



Mason and Woodford 



Mason of Gunston 



Of George; Mason, whom Garland Hunt says is "more 
than any other man entitled to be called the Father of the 
Declaration of Independence," whom Judge Garland says, "Is 
the greatest political philosopher the Western Hemisphere ever 
produced," of whose Bill of Rights, Gladstone said "It is the 
greatest document that ever emanated from the brain of man," 
little can be said here. His home was at Gunston Hall, on the 
Potolmac, but the Rising Sun knelvv him well, and his feet often 
trod Mary Washington's garden walks, or the floors of Ken- 
more, Chatham and the other residences of Old Fredericks- 
burg. 

Mason was intimate here, and here much of his trading 
and shipping was done. When he left Gunston, it was usually 
to come to Fredericksburg and meet his younger conferees, 
who were looking up to him as the greatest leader in America. 
He died and is buried at Gunston Hall. It was in Fredericks- 
burg that he first met young Washington, who ever afterward 
looked upon "The Sage of Gunston" as his adviser and friend, 
and as America's greatest man. 

General William Woodford 

Although he came from Caroline, General William Wood- 
ford was a frequenter of and often resident in Fredericksburg, 
and it was from this city he went to Caroline upon the assemb- 
ling of troops when Lord Dunmore became hostile. In subse- 
quent military operations he was made Colonel of the Second 
Regiment and distinguished himself in the campaign that fol- 
lowed, and he was honorably mentioned for his valiant conduct 
at the battle of Gread Bridge, December 9, 1775, upon which 
occasion he had the chief command and gained a brilliant vic- 
tory. He was later made General of the First Virginia Bri- 
gade. His command was in various actions throughout the 
war, in one of which, the Battle of Brandywine, he was 
severely wounded. He was made prisoner by the British in 
1778 at Charleston, and taken to New York, where he died. 

89 



The Owner of "Kenmore' 



Col. Fielding Lewis 



The mansion stands in a park, which in aututnn is an 
explosion of color. An old wall, covered with Virginia 
creeper, adds a touch of glamour to the Colonial house, and a 
willow tree commanding a conspicuous corner of the grounds 
lends a melancholy aspect which makes up the interesting 
atmosphere of Kenmore, part of the estate of Colonel Fielding 
Lewis, who brought to this home his bride, "Betty," a sister 
of George Washington, and where they lived as befitted people 
of wealth and learning, his wife giving an added meaning to 
the social life of the old tOAvn, and Colonel Lewis himself tak- 
ing an active and prominent part in the civic affairs, as most 
people of wealth and culture deemed it their duty to. do in 
the days gone by. 

Colonel Lewis was an officer in the Patriot Army and 
commanded a division at the siege of Yorktown. He ^vas an 
ardent patriot and when the Revolution started his activities 
ran to the manufacture of firearms, which were made at "The 
Gunnery" from iron wrought at the foundry, traces of which 
may still be seen on the Rappahannock river, just above the 
village of Falmouth. 

Colonel Lewis was a magistrate in the town after the 
war, a member of the City Council and represented the county 
in the Legislature. 

His son, Captain Robert Lewis, was one of President 
Washington's private secretaries and mayor of Fredericksburg 
from 1 82 1 to the day of his death. When LaFayette visited 
the town in 1824, Colonel Lewis was selected to deliver the 
address of welcome. 

However, we are apt to forget the elegancies and excel- 
lencies of the courtly man whose life was dedicated to useful 
service in a note that is struck by the home in which he lived. 
Kenmore, in the light of its past, sounds an overtone of 
romance. We cannot escape it, and it persistently reverberates 
above the people it sheltered. 

90 



The Greatest Officeholder 



James Monroe 



James Monroe was among the most important citizens 
that ever lived in Fredericksburg. 

Monroe was born in Westmoreland County, not far from 
what is ndw Colonial Beach. When a young man he was 
attracted by the larger opportunities afforded by the town and 
moved to Fredericksburg, where he began the practice of law, 
having an office in the row of old brick buildings on the west 
side of Charles Street, just south of Commerce. Records still 
in the courthouse show that he bought property on lower 
Princess Anne Street, which still is preserved and known as 
"The Home of James Monroe." Monroe occupied the house 
when it was located at Bradley's corner, and it was afterwards 
moved to its present site, though some contend that he lived 
in the house on its present site. 

Shortly after his arrival he became affiliated with St. 
George's Church, soon being elected a vestryman, and when he 
had been here the proper length of time he got into politics, 
and was chosen as one of the Town Councilmen. From this 
hulmble political preferment at the hands of the Fredericksburg 
people, he began a career that seemed ever afterward to have 
included nothing but officeholding. Later he became Conti- 
nental Congressman from the district including Fredericks- 
burg, and was, in turn, from that time on. Representative in 
the Virginia convention, Governor of Virginia, United States 
Congressman, Envoy Extraordinary to France, again Gover- 
nor, Minister to England, Secretary of War, once more Min- 
ister to England, Minister to Madrid, Secretary of State and 
twice President — if not a world's record at least one that is 
not often overmatched. Previous to his political career, Monroe 
had served in the Revolutionary Army as a Captain, having 
been commissioned while a resident of Fredericksburg. 

Monroe gave to America one of its greatest documents — 
known to history as the Monroe Doctrine. It was directed 
essentially against the purposes' of the Holy Alliance, formed 

91 



'Old Doctor Mortimer" 

in 1 815 by the principal European powers with the fundamental 
object of putting down democratic movements on the part of 
the people, whether they arose abroad or on this side of the 
world. After consultation with English statesmen and with 
Jefiferson, Adams, John Quincy Adams' and Calhoun, Monroe 
announced his new principle which declared that the United 
States of America would resent any attempt of the Alliance to 
"extend their system to this part of the Hemisphere *' 

Dr. Charles Mortimer 

In a beautiful old home on lower Main Street, surrounded 
by a wall, mellowed by time, and ivy-crowned, lived Washing- 
ton's dear friend and physician. Dr. Charles Mortimer. He 
could often be seen, in the days gone! by, seated on his com- 
fortable "verandah," smoking a long pipe, covered with curious 
devices, and discussing the affairs of the moment with those 
rare intellects who were drawn there by the interesting atmos- 
phere of blended beauty and mentality. There was, as a back- 
ground, a garden, sloping to the river, and sturdy trees 
checquered the sunlight. Old-fashioned flowers nodded in the 
breeze which blew up from the Rappahannock, and the 
Doctor's oxvn tobacco ships, with their returned English 
cargoes, swung on their anchors at the foot of the terraces. 

If one entered the house at the dinner hour, every deli- 
cacy of land and water would conspire against a refusal to 
dine with the host of this hospitable mansion. Highly polished 
and massive pewter dishes, disputed possession of the long ma- 
hogany table, with a mammoth bowl of roses — arrogantly 
secure of an advantageous position in the center. 

There was often the sound of revelry by night, and the 
rafters echoed gay laughter and the music of violins — high, 
and sweet and clear. 

An historic dinner, following the famous Peace Ball at 
the old Market House in November, 1784, was given here, and 
the hostess, little Maria Mortimer, sixteen years old, the 

92 



Maury — a Master Genius 

Doctor's only daughter, with her hair "cruped high" for the 
first time, presided, and her bon mots won the applause of the 
company, which was quite a social triumph for a sixteen-year- 
old girl, trying to hold her own with Lafayette, Count 
d'Estang and the famous Rochambeau. They clicked glasses 
and drank to her health standing, and little Maria danced 
with "Betty Lewis' Uncle George himself," for Washington 
did not disdain the stately measures of the minuet. 

But there is an obverse here. The old Doctor did not fail 
in his duty. On horseback, with his saddlebag loaded with 
medicines, he rode down dark forest paths to the homes of 
pioneers, traveled the streets of Fredericksburg and came 
silently along lone trails in the country in the dead of night, 
when hail or snow or driving rains cut at him bitterly through 
the trees. He refused no call, and claimed small fees. He 
was Mary Washington's physician for years, called on her 
almost daily, and stood by her bedside mute, when, the struggle 
over, she quietly passed on to the God in whom she had put 
her deepest faith. 

Of the many people who walk in Hurkamp Park, in the 
center of the old town, there are few who know that they are 
passing daily over the grave of the genial and popular Doctor, 
who was Fredericksburg's first mayor, and Washington's 
dearest friend. 

Matthew Fontaine Maury 

Of all the famous men who went from Fredericksburg 
to take large parts in the rapidly moving history of America, 
or in the work of the world. Commodore Maury added most 
to the progress of science. Not only did he create knowledge, 
but he created wealth by the immense saving he effected to 
shipping by charting shorter ocean routes. He is buried in 
Hollywood Cemetery, in Richmond, under a simple shaft 
which bears the name, "Matthew Fontaine Maury." The 
great "pathfinder of the seas" was born in Spotsylvania County, 
January, 1806, and died at Lexington in 1873. 

93 



A World Famed Scientist 

He wore the most prized decorations the monarchs of 
Europe could give him ; he founded the most valuable natural 
science known, and was reckoned a transcendent genius. Of 
him, Mellin Chamberlain, Librarian of Congress, said, with 
calm consideration ''I do not suppose there is the least doubt 
that Maury was the greatest man America ever produced." 

Alexander Humbolt said that Maury created a new 
science. 

He plunged into the unknolwn; he charted the seas and 
mapped its currents and winds. He was the first to tell the 
world that winds and currents were not of chance, but of fixed 
and immutable laws, and that even cyclones were well gov- 
erned. He knew why a certain coast was dry and another 
rainy, and he could, on being informed of the latitude and 
longitude of a place, tell what was the prevailing weather and 
winds. 

Maury went to sea as a midshipman in the American 
navy in 1825, and in 1831, at twenty-four years of age, he be- 
came master of the sloop Falmouth, with orders to go to the 
Pacific waters, but, though he sought diligently, he found no 
chart of a track for his vessel, no record of currents or of winds 
to guide him. The sea was a trackless wilderness, and the 
winds were things of vagrant caprice. And he began then to 
grapple with those problems which were to immortalize him. 

He came back from ocean wanderings in a few years and 
married an old sweetheart. Miss Ann Herndon, of Fredericks- 
burg, and he lived for a time on Charlotte Street, between 
Princess Anne and Prince Edward, and wrote his first book, 
"A Treatise on Navigation ;" while from his pen came a series 
of newspaper and magazine articles that startled the world 
of scientific thought. For the man had discovered new and 
unsuspected natural laws! 

Misfortune — that vastly helped him — came in 1839, 
when his leg was injured through the overturning of a stage 
coach. The government put him in charge of a new "Bureau 

94 



Charting Seas and Winds 

of Charts and Instruments," at Washington, and out of his 
work here grew the Naval Observatory, the Signal Service and 
the first Weather Bureau ever established on earth! Every 
other science was old. His science was utterly new, a field 
untouched. 

He found a mass of log books of American warships. 
Over these he pondered. He sent hundreds of bottles and 
buoys to be dropped into the seven seas by fighting craft and 
merchantmen. 

These were picked up now and again and came back to 
him, and from the information sent to him with them, and 
soundings in thousands of places, added to what he had 
gleaned in earlier years, he prepared his greatest work. It took 
ultimate form in a series of six "charts" and eight large 
volumes of "sailing directions," that comprehended all the 
waters and winds in all climes, and on every sea where white 
sails bend and steamer smoke drifts. 

The charts exhibit, with wonderful accuracy, the winds 
and currents, their force and direction at different seasons, 
the calm belts, the trade winds, the rains and storms — the gulf 
stream, the Japan current — all the great ocean movements; 
and the sailing directions are treasure chests for seamen. 
Paths were marked out on the ocean, and a practical result was, 
that one of the most difficult sea voyages — from New York 
to San Francisco, around the Horn — /was shortened by forty 
days. It has been estimated that by shortening the time of 
many sea voyages. Commander Maury has effected a saving of 
not less than $40,000,000 each year. 

Of his own work, Maury wrote : 

"So to shape the course on voyages at sea as to make the 
most of winds and currents, is the perfection of the navigator's 
art. How the winds blow or the currents flow along this route 
or that is no longer a matter of speculation or opinion. The 
wind and weather, daily encountered by hundreds who sailed 
before him, have been tabulated for the mariner ; nay, the path 
has been blazed for hi'm on the sea; mile posts have been set 

95 



Honored by All Europe 

upon the waves and time tables furnished for the trackless 
waste." 

It was this work that, reaching over Europe and Asia, 
brought on the Brussels conference in 1853, to which Maury, 
founder of the science of hydrography and meteorolog>% 
went as America's representative, and here ho covered himself 
with honors. He came back to write his ''Physical Geography 
of the Sea and Its Meteorology," 

This, the essence of his life work, the poetry and the 
romance of his science, passed through twenty editions and 
was known in every school, but the book's greatest interest 
was killed by the removal of the ^poetic strain that made it 
beautiful. It has been translated into almost every language. 
In it is the story of the sea, its tides and winds, its shore lines 
and its myriads of life; its deep and barren bottoms. For 
Maury also charted the ocean floors, and it was his work in 
this line that caused Cyrus Field to say of the laying of the 
Atlantic cable: 

"Maury furnished the brains, England furnished the 
money, and I did the work." ' 

No other American ever was honored by Emperors and 
Kings as was Matthew Fontaine Maury. He was given orders 
of Knighthood by the Czar of Russia, the King of Denmark, 
King of Spain, King of Portugal, King of Belgium and Em- 
peror of France, while Russia, Austria, Sweden, Holland. 
Sardenia, Bremen, Turkey and France struck gold medals in 
his honor. The pope of Rome sent him a full set of all the 
medals struck during his pontificate. Maximilian decorated 
him with "The Cross of the Order of Guadaloupe" while Ger- 
many besto'wed on him the "Cosmos Medal," struck in honor 
of Von Humboldt, and the only duplicate of that medal in 
existence. 

The current of the Civil War swept Maury away from 
Washington, and he declined offers from France, Germany 
and Russia, joining his native state in the Confederacy. He 

96 



Archibald McPherson 



introduced the submarine torpedo, and rendered the South 
other service before the final wreck, which left him stranded 
and penniless. He went to Mexico now, to join his fortunes 
with those of the unhappy Maximilian, and when the Emperor 
met his tragic end he found himself again resourceless — and 
crippled. In 1868 when general amnesty was given, he came 
back to become the first professor of meteorology at the Vir- 
ginia Military Institute. In October, 1872, he became ill and 
died in February of the next year. 

And this man, who had from Kings and Emperors more 
decorations than any American has ever received, and for 
whom Europe had ever ready the highest honors and greatest 
praise, was ignored by his own government, to which he gave 
his life's work. No word of thanks, no tribute of esteem, no 
reward, was ever given him. A bill to erect a monument to 
him lies noiw rotting in some pigeonhole in Congress. But 
an effort to renew this is underway. 

Archibald McPherson 

Curiously enough, no more memory is left to Fredericks- 
burg of Archibald McPherson than the tombstone under the 
mock orange tree in St. George's Church, the tablets to his 
memory in the old charity school on Hanover Street (now the 
Christian Science Church) and a few shadowy legends and 
unmeaning dates. 

He was born in Scotland and died in Fredericksburg in 
1854. He was a member of St. George's Church and vestry. 

But what manner of man he was, the few recorded acts 
we know will convey to every one. He established a Male Char- 
ity School with his own funds principally, and took a deep 
interest in it, and, dying, he left the small fortune he had 
accumulated by Scotch thrift "to the poor of the toKvn," and 
provided means of dispensing the interest on this sum for char- 
ity throughout the years to come. Most of this fund was 
wiped out by depreciation of money, etc., during the Civil 
War. 

97 



Men of Modern Times 

Soldiers, Ad'venturers and Sailors, Heroes and Artists, mingle here. 

A prophet without honor in his own country was Mon- 
cure Daniel Conway because, a Fredericksburger and a South- 
erner, he opposed slavery. But his genius won him world 
praise, and later, honer in his own country. 

Born in 1832, near Falmouth, to which village his people 
moved later, the child of Walker Peyton Conway and Margue- 
rite Daniel Conway he inherited from a long line of ancestry, 
a brilliant intellect and fearlessness to' tread the paths of free- 
dom. 

The difficult studious child was too much for his teacher, 
Miss Gaskins, of Falmouth, so he was sent, at the age of ten, 
to Fredericksburg Classical and Mathematical Academy, origi- 
nally John Marye's famous school, and made rapid progress. 

His hero was his great uncle. Judge R. C. L. Moncure, of 
Glencairne, and his early memoirs are full of loving gratitude 
for the great man's toleration and help. The Methodism of 
his parents did not hold him, for he several times attended the 
services at St. George's Church. 

The wrongs of slavery he saw, and after he entered Dick- 
inson College, at Carlisle, in his fifteenth year, he found an 
anti-slavery professor, McClintock, who influenced him and 
encouraged his dawning agnosticism. His cousin, John M. 
Daniel, editor of the Richmond Examiner, became, in 1848, 
a leading factor in Conway's life, encouraging his literary 
efiforts and publishing many of his contributions. 

All beauty, all art appealed to him. Music was always a 
passion, and we also find constant and quaint references to 
beautiful women and girls. It seemed the superlative compli- 
ment, though he valued feminine brains and ability. 

.98 



Conway's Famous Friends 

His great spiritual awakening came with his finding an 
article by Emerson and at the age of twenty, to the delight of 
his family, he became a Methodist minister. 

His career as such was not a success. After one of his 
sermons, in which he ignored Heaven and Hell, his father said : 
"One thing is certain, Monk, should the Devil aim at a Meth- 
odist preacher, you'd be safe." 

He moved to Cambridge. The prominence of his South- 
ern family, and his own social and intellectual charms gave 
him entre to the best homes and chiefest among them, that of 
his adored Emerson, where he met and knew all the great 
lights of the day. His slavery opinions, valuable as a Southern 
slave owner's son, made him an asset in the anti-slavery prop- 
aganda of the time. / 
Among his friends were the Thoreaus, Hawthorne, Long- 
fellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes and Agassiz. 

I must hurry over the charm of those college days to 
Moncure Conway's first Unitarian Church, in Washington. 
So pronounced were his sermons on anti-slavery that his father 
advised him not to come home on a visit. He did come and 
had the humiliation of being ordered from Falmouth under 
pain of tar and feathers, an indignity which cut him to his soul. 
His success in Washington was brilliant, but he found trouble, 
owing to his abolitionist opinions, and had to resign. In 1856 
he accepted a call to a Cincinnati church, whose literary and 
artistic circles made much of the new preacher. The wealth 
of that larger population enabled Conway to establish several 
charitable homes. He married there Ellen Davis Dana, 
and there published his first book, "Tracts For Today." He 
edited a paper. The Dial, to which Emerson contributed. 

He went to England to the South Place Chapel, London, 
an ethical society, and the round peg seemed to have found its 
proper hole at last. Here he labored for twenty years, and 
became known through all Europe. His personal recollec- 
tions of Alfred Tennyson, the Brownings their courtship : of 
Carlyle, are classics. A very interesting light is thrown on 

99 



He Travels Through Russia 

Freud. He was intimate with the whole pre-Raphaelite school 
and gives account among others of Rossetti and his lovely 
wife, all friendships he formed in Madam Brown's charming 
home. 

Burne Jones, Morris, Whistler, Swinburne, Arthur 
Hughs, DeMaurier (was there ever such a collection of genius 
in one country) are all described in Conway's vivid pen pic- 
tures. Artemus Wardj|f was his friend, and Conway con- 
ducted the funeral services over that world's joy giver, and 
in his same South End Chapel, preached memorial addresses 
on Cobblen, Dickens, Maurice, Mazzanni, Mill, Straus, Liv- 
ingstone, George Eliot, Stanley, Darwin, LongfelloNv, Car- 
lyle, the beloved Emerson, Tennyson, Huxley and Abe Lin- 
coln, whom he never admired, though he recognized his brain 
and personality. He accused hiim of precipitating the horrible 
war for the sake of a flag and thus murdering a million men. 
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) and his wife visited 
England in 1872 and Moncure Conway and his wife knew 
them intimately and afterwards visited them in this country. 
Joseph Jefferson, John Motley, George Eliot, Mrs. Humphrey 
Ward (whose book, Robert Elsmere, he flays) and W. S. Gil- 
bert, all were his friends The man was a genius, a social Vol- 
taire; a master of thought and phrase. Where before did an 
exile from his own country ever achieve a friendship circle 
where the names now scintillate over all the world? 

He visited Paris in 1867 and the story of his travels in Rus- 
sia later are full of charm, of folk lore and religious mysticism. 
But before long we find him back in his South Place Chapel. His 
accounts of several woman preachers there are interesting, as is 
that of Annie Besant — the wondrous before-her-time — whom 
Mrs. Conway befriended in her bitter persecution by her par- 
son husband for agnosticism. In 1875 Conway returned to 
America, and Falmouth town, grieving over the war ravages 
and his lost boyhood friends. He toured through the West, 
lecturing on Demonology, and the great Englishmen he knew. 
The deathof his son, Dana, and of his wife in 1897, were blows, 

100 







O 



^* 



< 
w 
pq 



A Great American Artist 

and his remaining years were spent in Europe with several 
visits between to his brother, Peter V. D, Conway, of Fred- 
ericksburg, and friends in America. His Hfe ended in 1907 
in Paris. A great man, a brilliant and a brave one. 'He fought 
for his beliefs as bravely as ever did any warrior or explorer 
in unknown lands. 

Gari Melchers 

Crowning a hill, which is the triumphant result of a 
series of terraces rising from the town of Falmouth, oppo- 
site Fredericksburg, is Belmont, the home of Gari Melchers, 
an American artist, who has been more honored abroad than 
any of our living painters, with the exception, perhaps, of 
John Singer Sargent. 

Born in Detroit, Gari Melchers left America when he was 
seventeen, to pursue his studies in Europe. 

His apprentice days were spent in Dusseldorf and Paris, 
where his professional debut in 1889 gained for him the 
coveted Grand Prix — Sargent and Whistler being the only 
other American painters similarly honored. 

Italy had to resign to Holland the prestige of lending 
her country to the genius of Mr. Melchers, for he intended 
to reside in Italy, but owing to the outbreak of the cholera 
there he settled at Engmond instead. His studio borrowed 
the interest of the sea on one side and the charm' of a lazy 
canal on the other, and over its door were inscribed the words : 
"Wahr und Klar" (Truth and Clarity). Here he worked at 
those objective and realistic pictures of Dutch life and scenes ; 
and free from all scholastic pretense, he painted the serene, 
yet colorful panorama of Holland. 

Christian Brinton says of the art of Gari Melchers that 
it is explicit and veracious. Prim interiors are permeated with 
a light that envelopes all things with a note of sadness. Ex- 
terior scenes reflect the shifting of seasons or the precise hour 
of day. He paints air as well as light and color. Without 

lOI 



John Elder's Great Work 

exaggeration, he manages to suggest the intervening aerial 
medium between the seer and the thing seen. 

Mr. Melchers has no set formula. 

In 19 18 there was a wonderful "one man" display of his 
art at the Corcoran Art Gallery, and in 19 19, the Loan Exhibi- 
tion, held by the Copley Society at the Boston Art Club, was 
the second of the two important recent events in the artist's 
career since his returning to America. Here his work has 
undergone some perceptible change, gaining lightness and 
freshness of vision, which shows his reaction to a certain essen- 
tial Americanism. Mr. Melchers attacks whatever suits his par- 
ticular mood, and his art is not suggestive of a subjective 
temperament. 

"The Sermon"— "The Communion"— "The Pilots"— 
"The Shipbuilders" — "The Sailor and His Sweetheart" — 
"The Open Door" are some of his well-known canvases. 
His reputation as a portrait painter rests upon a secure founda- 
tion. 

His awards include medals from Berlin, Antwerp, Vienna, 
Paris and Munich, Ansterdam, Dresden, Pennsylvania Acad- 
emy of Fine Arts, and many other medals for art exhibitions. 

He is an officer of the Legion of Honor, France ; officer 
of the Order of the "Red Eagle," Prussia; officer of the Order 
of "St. Michael" Bavaria : officer of the Order of the "White 
Falcon," Saxe-Weimar. 

Mr. Melchers himself is frank and not chained by minor 
conventions. He has a powerful personality and a charming 
wife, who dispenses a pleasant hospitality, in a home that 
leaves nothing to be desired. 

John A. Elder 

Fredericksburg gave John A. Elder, the gifted painter to 
the world, for he saw the light of day in this town in February, 
1833 ; and here he first felt that call to art which had its begin- 
nings when Elder would, as a mere boy, make chalk drawings 

102 



Some of Elder's Paintings 

on the sides of the buildings, and took the time, while doing 
errands for his father, to give rein to his imagination through 
some interesting sketch, which would finally drift into the 
possession of his friends. His father's opposition to an 
artistic career for his son did not long retard his progress, as 
so great was the urge within him that he borrowed from 
a fellow townsman, Mr, John Minor, the money to study 
abroad, and before long Dusseldorf, Germany, claimed him 
as a student, and there the love of line and color which he 
had inherited from his mother's family gained definition. De- 
tails of his life in Dusseldorf are too vague to chronicle but he 
returned to this country at the beginning of the Civil War, 
with a knowledge of his art which gained him instant recog- 
nition, and success followed in his footsteps. 

Elder was a man whose sympathetic personality drew the 
love of his fellow-men, and his studio was the rendezvous of 
such men as Attorney-General R. T. Daniel, Lord Grant, 
Peterkin, Fred Daniel, who represented the United States 
as consul to Rome for fourteen years, and many others. 

His experiences in war gave to him a sureness and truth 
in detail, which, when added to his technique, produced results 
which challenged the admiration of all who saw his work. 

His "Battle of the Crater" and "Scout's Prize" were 
inspired by scenes in which he had figured. The former 
hangs on the walls of the Westmoreland Club, in Richmond, 
Va., and his canvas "After Appomattox" adorns the State 
Library in the same city, along with many portraits which 
trace their origin to him. 

His "Lee" and "Jackson" are in the Corcoran Art Gal- 
lery in Washington, and there is a portrait of Mr. Corcoran 
himself which owes its existence to his gifted brush. 

He visited Jefiferson Davis at "Beauvoir" and painted 
him there. 

Of ordinary height and rather thick set, Mr. Elder's appear- 
ance was characterized by distinction and force. His eyes 
were dark and very expressive; he wore a moustache and 

103 



Reverend James Power Smith 

"imperial" and in all his photographs we notice the "artistic 
flowing tie" On the left of his forehead was a scar, the result 
of some encounter in Germany, and as the artist never mar- 
ried, one is apt to read a romance into his life. However, this 
is pure speculation, as there is nothing, to substantiate such an 
assumption. 

"Jack" Elder was a master of the foils, and on one occa- 
sion when a noted Frenchman engaged him in a "bout" Elder 
disarmed him with ease, and the Frenchman's foil was thrown 
against the ceiling. 

The artist returned to Fredericksburg, where he lived 
six years prior to his death, which occurred on February 25, 
1895, and in these last years he was ministered to by his 
nieces and nepheiws, who showed him much devotion. 

Rev. James Power Smith 

Rev. James Power Smith was not born in Fredericksburg, 
but he preached here for thirty years, at the Presbyterian 
Church, aiding the poor and sick, and always smiling. He 
was highly successful in his church achievements and in his 
years of editorship of the Central Presbyterian. 

One night in his life proved him to be minted of fine 
metal, and that night inscribed his name forever in history. 
It was the fearful night when Stonewall Jackson received his 
death blow. 

Captain Smith (now Reverend) was a theological student 
when war broke out, and was immediately made a military 
lieutenant (not a chaplain). Throughout the war he followed 
close to Jackson, on his staff. Religion brought them together 
and their friendship was deep. 

When in the darkness of the trees that overhang the Chan- 
cellorsville road, "Stonewall" Jackson was mortally wounded 
and others about him killed by their own troops there were a 
few men, among them General A. P. Hill, at hand to help him. 
He had hardly been taken from his horse when two aides, 

104 



When Jackson Was Wounded 

Lieutenant Morrison and Lieutenant Smith, arrived. With 
General Hill directing, they arrested the bleeding. Gen- 
eral Hill had to hurry back to form his men for an attack. 
Lieutenant Morrison had just seen a field piece, not 200 yards 
away, pointing down the Plank Road. There was no litter, and 
General Jackson offered to walk to the rear. Leaning on 
Major Leigh and Lieutenant Morrison, he began struggling 
toward his lines. They had just placed Jackson on a litter 
that had been sent up, when the Federal cannon began to rake 
the road with canister. Every figure, horse or gun toward 
the Confederate lines disappeared. They tried to take him 
back, but a litter-bearer was struck down and the Great Leader 
was dropped and bruised. 

In a moment, on the dark road swept by awful fire, there 
were but thred men, and, as the subject of this sketch, Lieu- 
tenant Smith, was one of them, it is apropos to quote what 
Prof. R. S. Dabney says in his Life of Jackson : 

'The bearers and all the attendants, excepting Major 
Leigh and the general's two aides, had left and fled into the 
woods. While the sufferer lay in the road with his feet turned 
toward the enemy, exposed to the fire of the guns, his attend- 
ants displayed a heroic fidelity which deserved to go down in 
history with the immortal name of Jackson. Disdaining to 
leave their chief, they lay down beside him, leaning above 
him and trying as far as possible to protect him with their 
bodies. On one side was Major Leigh, on the other Lieu- 
tenant Smith. Again and again was the earth torn by vol- 
leys of canister, and minnie balls hissed over them, the iron 
striking flashes from the stones about him." 

Finally when the firing ceased. General Jackson was 
removed from the battlefield to a hospital, and then to Mr. 
Chandler's house at Guinea Station, where he died, May 10, 
1863. 

Lieutenant Smith became The Reverend when war ceased, 
and married Miss Agnes Lucy Lacy, a daughter of Major J. 
Horace Lacy. 

105 



Major J. Horace Lacy 

He was well known in Fredericksburg. For thirty years 
he was pastor here; for fifty years Secretary of the Presby- 
terian Synod, and for years editor of the Central Presbyterian. 
Many know his works. All men know the deep, immovable 
courage it took that night to lie as a barrier, to take whatever 
death might be hurled down • the shell-swept road toward 
"Stonewall" Jackson, 

He still lives, in 1921, in Richmond. His voice is low, 
his sn'ile soft, and his religion his life. He is' the last survivng 
member of "Stondwall" Jackson's staff. 

Major J. Horace Lacy 

There are many living now who remember him. The 
strong, stolid figure, the fine old face traced with the lineage 
of gentilit)\ the cane that pounded down the sidewalks as he 
went where he willed. There are some left who knew the 
power and poetry and kindliness of the man. 

Major Lacy was a graduate of Washington and Lee and 
an attorney at law, though he seldom practiced. He was 
married in 1848 at Chatham, when he was twenty- four years 
of age, to Miss Betty Churchill Jones, and later became the 
owner of "Chatham" and of the "Lacy House," about each 
of which clings grim traditions of war; both the Wilderness 
place and Chatham becaime known in those two battles as 
"The Lacy House." 

Washington Irving was his guest while spending some 
time in Virginia; General Robert E. Lee was his guest, and 
many other widely known men. 

His service in war was well done. He was made a lieu- 
tenant at the beginning and promoted to major on the field 
of battle at Seven Pines. He served under General Joseph E. 
Johnston until the latter surrendered, some time after Appo- 
mattox. 

When the war was ended he went North to do a brave 
thing. He spoke through Pennsylvania and Maryland, plead- 

106 



Winning a Hostile Audience 

ing for funds to bury and put grave stones over the Con- 
federate dead. He had experiences' there. But his splendid 
oratory and the courage of his presence usually kept order. 

He spoke once at Baltimore, and among his audience 
was an Irish Federal regiment, clad halt in uniform, half in 
civilians, as forgotten ex-privates usually are. Major Lacy 
was told that most of the audience was hostile and threatening. 

He walked on the platform and spoke a few words 
about the unknown men he came to get funds to decently bury, 
of the women away where the starlight (was twinkling over 
cabin and home, of those who waited, listening for a step; 
of those who were never again to see the men they loved. 

Shuffling feet and laughter dulled the simple pathos of 
his words. Then turning half away from his audience he 
recited a poem called "The Irish Immigrant's Lament" : 

"I am sitting on the stile, Mary, 
Where we sat, side by side, 
On that bright May morning long ago. 
When first you were my bride." 

He began it thus, and into his voice, filled with the 
sorrows of the "Mary's" who wept down in his Southland, he 
put the full strength of his expression. The hostile audience 
was silent as he finished. 

Andi often in the far-off world, 
I'll sit and close my eyes, 
And my heart will travel back again 
To where my Mary lies. 
And I'll think I see the little stile 
Where we sat, side by side, 
Mid the young corn on that bright May mom 
When you were first my bride." 

The Irishmen who had fought against the cause which 
Lacy loved were quiet now, and when hei said, "Wouldn't you 
want a bit of a stone for 'Mary' to remember you," they yelled 
and rushed to grasp his hand. From his "hostile" audience he 

107 



General Ruggles' Career 

collected $14,000.00 that night. In the whole tour he. gathered 
a great sum for Confederate cemeteries. 

During his later years, with his wife, who represented the 
ladies of another era, as he did its men, he lived on Washington 
Avenue, in Fredericksburg. To few did he ever show the 
deeper side of his character, but those who knew him until he 
died in 1906, knew how much kindly manliness dwelt therein. 

Major General Daniel Ruggles 

Although Major General Daniel Ruggles was born in 
Massachusetts, he married Miss Richardetta Mason Hooe, a 
great granddaughter of George Mason, and the greater part 
of his life was spent in Fredericksburg, of which he became a 
citizen and in which he died. 

During his life in Fredericksburg he concerned himself 
with the business of the town, and was known to almost all 
of its residents. 

He was graduated into the army from West Point in 
1883 and lead a small band into the west and explored the 
Fox river the same year. 

When the Seminole Indian war broke out Lieutenant 
Ruggles with fifty men penetrated the everglades and was 
commended for his services. In the Mexican war he stopped 
the Mexican advance at Palo Alto and was promoted to Cap- 
tain on the field. 

Captain Ruggles and his men reached Chapaultepec, 
drove into the city, made a determined stand and were the 
first of the advancing American Army to raise the American 
flag over the fort. He was breveted Major by President Polk 
"for gallant and meritorious conduct at Chereubusco" and a 
little later was made Lieutenant Colonel "for gallant and con- 
spicuous bravery at Chapaultepec." In 1861 he joined the 
Confederate Army. 

Placed in command of the most important of the South- 
ern departments at Fredericksburg, the "gateway to the 

108 



The Real ''First Battle' 

South," he organized and equipped a small army. When the 
Confederacy found that they had no gun caps, necessary on 
the old "muzzle loaders," and no copper from which to make 
caps. General Ruggles invented a cap made from raw hide and 
dried in the sun (specimens are in the National Museum), 
which were used by the whole Southern Army during the first 
three months of the war. 

General Ruggles planted artillery and, using these caps 
with match heads to explode them, drove of¥ the Union gun- 
boats and a lading force at Aquia Creek May 31, 1861, nine 
days before "Big Bethel", and weeks after Virginia seceded. 
He^ thus fought and won the first battle of the Civil war. 

His career during the war won him wide recognition. 
His movements won the battle of Shiloh through finding a 
weak point in the enemy's line. He was made Major General 
March 25, 1865, and surrendered at Augusta, Ga., after Appo- 
mattox. Although he fought in five Indian wars, the Mexican 
war and the Civil war, from the start to finish, and ;was recog- 
nized as a man who would lead his men anywhere, he never 
received a wound of any kind in his life. 

Many people in Fredericksburg remember him now, with 
his fine face, his erect figure and his long gray whiskers. In 
his latter days some people laughed at him, not understanding 
that there was genius in the man, because of his first experi- 
ence with "rainmaking." He invented the method which is 
used now by the lUnited States Government, under his patent. 
He earned the name of "raincrow" which sometimes reached 
his ears. He patented the first propeller which was ever used 
on a steam boat (model in the National Museum). He also 
invented the first principles of the telephone. He invented in 
1858 a system whereby an electric bell on a ship would ring 
on the approach of the ship to any rock or point on the shore 
equipped ^ith the same apparatus. This was tested by the 
navy and proclaimed impractical, but it contained the principles 
of wireless telegraphy. It is used by the American navy today. 

109 



Roger Clark — Major Braxton 

John Roger Clark, Explorer 

Though a monument has just been erected in another 
city which claims him as a citizen, there is excellent evidence 
of the fact that John Roger Clarke, reclaimer of the great 
Northwest, and also his brother, William Clarke, who with 
Merriweather Lewis, explored the Mississippi, were born in 
Spotsylvania County and lived near Fredericksburg. Accord- 
ing to Quinn's History of Fredericksburg, Maury's History of 
Virginia and letters from descendents, the two famous Clarke 
brothers were sons of Jonathan Clarke, who lived at New- 
market, Spotsylvania County, where John Roger Clarke was 
born. Jonathan Clarke was clerk of the County Court of 
Spotsylvania and afterwards moved to Fredericksburg, where 
it may be probable, the younger son was born. Later they 
moved to Albemarle County, near Charlottesville, where the 
two sons grew to manhood. 

The history of the two Clarkes' is so well knofwn, even 
by school children, that it is needless to go into it here, the 
purpose of this reference being to establish their connection 
with the town. 

Major Elliott Muse Braxton 

Major Elliott Muse Braxton is widely known, as he was 
once Congressman from this district. He was born in the 
County of Middlesex, October 2, 1823, was a grandson of 
Carter Braxton, one of Virginia's signers of the Declaration 
of Independence. His father was also Carter Braxton, a suc- 
cessful lawyer in Richmond. 

In 1 85 1 he ^as elected to the Senate of Virginia. So 
ably and efficiently did Major Braxton represent his constitu- 
ents that he won another election without any opposition. 

In 1854 he married Anna Marie Marshall, a grand- 
daughter of the great expounder of the Constitution, Chief 
Justice Marshall. In 1859 he adopted Fredericksburg as his 
home, where he was when "war's dread alarm," came. He 

no 



Dr. Francis P. Wellford 

organized a company of infantry, of which he was unani- 
mously elected captain, from which position he was soon pro- 
moted to that of major, and assigned to the staff of General 
John R. Cooke. On the conclusion of hostilities he again 
engaged in the practice of law, forming a co-partnership with 
the late C. Wistar Wallace, Esq. In 1870 he was nominated 
alt Alexandria by the Democrats for Congress, the City of 
Fredericksburg being then a constituent of the Eighth District. 

He continued to practice his profession of law until fail- 
ing health admonished him to lay its burdens down. 

On October 2, 1891, he died in his home at Fredericks- 
burg, and Virginia mourned a son who was always true, loyal 
and faithful. Elliots Muse Braxton was a Virginia gentleman 
and in saying that a good deal is comprehended. Courteous 
in manner, considerate in tone and temper, clean in character, 
loyal to State and to Church, cherishing with ardor as the 
years went by, the obligations and the responsibilities of old 
Virginia, he fell asleep. 

Dr. Francis P. Wellford 

"But a certain Samaritan as he journeyed came where 
he was and when he saw him, he had compassion on him — 
and went to him' and bound up his wounds". In this way we 
are told the tender story of the Good Samaritan. 

In 1877 Dr. Francis Preston Wellford, of Fredericks- 
burg, was living in Jacksonville, Florida, when a scourge of 
yellow fever invaded Fernandina. Almost all of its physicians 
were vidtims of the disease, or worn out with work. Dr. 
Wellford volunteered for service, which was almost certain 
death, fell a victim, and died, on the saime day and in the next 
cot to his fellow-townsman, Dr. Herndon. 

"For whether on the scaffold high, 
Or in the battle's van, 
The noblest death that man can die; 
Is when he dies for man." 

Ill 



Doctor Jantes C. Herndon 

Over his grave in the cemetery a:t Fredericksburg, there 
is an imposing monument, with this simple inscription : 

"Francis Preston Wellford, 

Born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, 

September I2, 1839." 

On the beautiful memorial window in St. Peter's Church, 
Fernandina, Florida, erected by Dr. J. H. Upham, of Boston, 
who felt that their memory should not be neglected, one reads : 

"Francis Preston Wellford, Ml D, 

Born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, 

Sept. 12, 1839, 

James Carmicheal Herndon, M. D. 

Born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, 

Sept. 22, 1821, 

Died in the faithful discharge of their duties at 

Fernandina, Florida, 

Oct. 18, 1877." 



Dr. James C. Herndon 

When surgeons were needed for the Confederate Army, 
the Dr. Herndon above mentioned left his practice and went, 
although exempted by law. He served through four years of 
war, and when peace was declared, made his home in Florida. 

He was state physician there, when Fernandina was 
stricken by the dread yellow fever, and the population was 
almost helpless. 

Deeming it his duty, Herndon voluntarily went into the 
city of the dying. He had worked but a few days when he 
was stricken, and death followed. 

He died as bravely as a man may die, and few have died 
for so good a cause. He sleeps in the silent cemetery in Fred- 
ericksburg, his home. 

112 



Judge Wallace^Mayor Rowe 

Hon. a, Wellington Wallace 

Among the men whose writings have added to Freder- 
icksburg's fame is Hon. A. Wellington Wallace, at one time 
Judge of the Corporation Court of Fredericksburg and, later 
chosen President of the Virginia Bar Association. Judge 
Wallace never sought political office and his abilities therefore 
never were fully publicly known in that line, but some of his 
literary compositions have been widely read and favorably 
criticised. The most important of his work, perhaps, is his 
epitome on the intents, purposes and meaning of the constitu- 
tion. Though brief it clearly and sharply defines and analyses 
the important document under which we are governed, and 
gives to the reader an intelligent conception of what its 
fralmers aimed at and hoped to do, such as could not be gained 
in pages of lengthier reading. 

Hon. a. p. Rowe 
(1817-1900) 

One of the best known and most beloved characters of 
the after-the-war period was Absalom P. Rowe, affectionately 
known as "Marse Ab." He served as Quartermaster, Con- 
federate States Army, throughout the Civil War, and after 
its close, played a leading part in restoring order and system 
out of the terrible desolation with which this section was 
inflicted. He was prominent in all matters pertaining to the 
civic and State governments and was a powerful influence in 
all the stirring events of that period. 

"Marse Ab" represented the district comprising Freder- 
icksburg and Spotsylvania county in the State Legislature for 
the session 1879- 1880, ^"^ served as Mayor of Fredericks- 
burg continuously from 1888 to 1900, with the exception of 
one term, and had just been re-elected for another term at 
the time of his death, 

Fredericksburg was then under its old charter and the 
police court was presided. over by the Mayor. "Marse Ab's" 

113 



A Famous ''Tramp Comedian" 

court was known far and wide, and his characteristic method 
of deahng out justice was the cause of fear to ofifenders and 
a source of amusement to large numbers of onlookers who 
always attended the sessions of court. "Marse Ab's" decisions 
were quickly reached and swiftly delivered, and the penalties 
inflicted were tempered with the wisdom and discretion of 
his long experience and his rare qualities as a judge of human 
nature. 

Mayor Rowe was the father of Captain M. B. Rowe, ex- 
Mayor J. P. Rowe, Messrs. A. P. Rowe and Alvin T. Rowe, 
all prominent business men of the city today. 

Nat C. Wills 

Not only has Fredericksburg contributed men who took 
high rank in the political, economic and scientific up-building 
of the country, but it has furnished at least one of those who 
ranked highest as an amuser of the Nation. This was Nat 
Wills, nationally known to the American theater going public 
as the foremost exemplifier of the tramp. Wills' real name 
was Matthew McGrath Wills. When still a young man he 
went from Fredericksburg and made his home in Washington. 
There he humbly began a stage career as a tramp comedian 
that ended, when he was at the pinnacle of success, with his 
sudden death in New York some eight years ago. 

Merely to have been a successful "Tramp Comedian" 
does not imply fame. But Wills was more than merely a 
tramp comedian. He was creator of a new art on the Ameri- 
can stage and those who now caricature the lowly denizen of 
the cross ties, are followers of the lead he took. In mannerism, 
type and action they copy Wills' conception of what a true 
tramp should be, but none yet has succeeded in portraying the 
character with the humor that Wills put into his work. 

Technically speaking Wills was a low comedian, but his 
wit and humor and art are not suggested by that term. Dressed 
in clothes that were themselves a burlesque of the world's 
kindness, he represented with dramatic humor a character that 

114 




John Paul Jones Home 
Above: A Grocery Since 1760. Beloiv, Stevens House 



The Gallant Herndon's Death 

went through life unconscious of his rags, careless of the pres- 
ent and unafraid of the future, but with a kindness of heart 
and a philosophy that is true only to those who have viewed 
life from close to its rougher aspects. After he had achieved 
success his plays were especially written for him and he had 
a large part in their making. His lines were witty and clever 
and as curtain encores he sang parodies he had written on 
whatever were the popular songs of the day, and these were 
brilliant satires on the original themes. 

Wills never forgot the city of his nativity. Whenever 
close enough to be appreciated, he always told a joke that 
permitted him to bring in his connection with the town. His 
sudden death was a shock to theater goers, and no one has 
since supplanted in their affections' the particular character he 
essayed. Though dead he remains master of the art he created. 



Commander Wm. Lewis Herndon 

It is not so much because of his life as of his death, that 
every Fredericksburger cherishes the memory of Commander 
William Lewis Herndon. He was born here in 1813, and 
fifteen years afterwards was made a midshipman and in 1855 
reached the rank of Admiral. Commander Herndon made the 
first exploration of the Amazon, amidst great dangers, and 
his book on this subject became a standard. 

With 478 souls aboard, Commander Herndon started 
from New York for South America in 1857 on the big passen- 
ger ship "Central America." She sailed proudly out, the flying 
fish fleeing her prow down the Gulf Stream through sunny 
days, until suddenly in the Gulf of Mexico the ship shattered 
against a rock. 

Standing with his sword in his hand. Commander Hern- 
don saw the boats lowered one by one until each woman and 
child was safely on the sea in life boats. Ordering his men 
to continue disembarking passengers he went below to put on 
his dress uniform, and coming back directed the making of 

"5 



Men of the Old Navy 



rafts. Hundreds of men jumped and nearly 150 were lost. 
Commander Herndon stood last on the ship upon the Bridge 
that is a Captain's castle, the gold of his uniform losing its 
glow as the sun fell behind the far off shore lines. Still hover- 
ing near, the sailors in a half dozen boats in which were 
women and children, cried out to him to come over. He 
bent his head a moment in prayer then doffed his cocked hat, 
and smiling, went down as his ship plunged bow forward into 
the Gulf waters. There is no tradition of our Navy more 
glowing than this one, which Commander Herndon, of Fred- 
ericksburg, added to its legends. 



Captain Rudd, U. S. Navy 

Captain John Rudd was a resident of our City after his 
retirement from the U. S. Navy. He was too old to serve in 
the Confederacy and lived in a house next to the old Citizens 
Hall, near where the Catholic Church now stands. 

He sailed many years in the old Navy, and had many 
tales to tell to the young people of his neighborhood concern- 
ing his adventures. 



Commodore Theo. R. Rootes 

Commodore Theo. R. Rootes resigned from the U. S. 
Navy in 1861, and was immediately named as commander in 
the Confederate Navy. He was stationed in Richmond in the 
early part of the war and in 1864 was given the command of 
the ironclad "Fredericksburg" of the James river fleet. He 
took part in the expedition against the U. S. fleet on the James 
river and was a member of the Naval Brigade which after the 
evacuation of Richmond was surrounded at Sailors Creek, 
April 6, 1865. He lived in the old Scott house, now owned by 
Charles Cole, Esq., on the corner of Prince Edward and 
Amelia Streets. 

116 



Two Great Naval Officers 

Rear Admiral Griffin 

Of the men whom Fredericksburg has sent forth in its 
more modern era, Rear Admiral Robert S. Griffin, who was 
born in 1857, entered as a cadet engineer at Annapolis and 
was graduated in 1878, is among the most notable. Admiral 
Griffin has spent no fewer than fourteen years of a busy career 
on sea duty, and has been for a decade a recognized authority 
on naval engineering. In his position as Chief of the Bureau 
of Naval Engineering he is responsible for the innovations 
and improvements in our capital ships, the electric drive for 
cruisers, the turbine reduction gear for destroyers. 

The high state of efficiency in the Engineering Depart- 
ment is due to Admiral Griffin's constant efforts and his tact 
in overcoming Naval and Congressional opposition is a per- 
sonal accomplishment. 

Admiral Griffin resigned from the Bureau on September 
21, 1 92 1, and was retired September 2y, 1921. 

He lives in Washington, but is a valued visitor to his 
former City from time to time. Admiral Griffin's record is 
almost unexcelled. He rose by hard work and brains and has 
for years been a source of pride to Fredericksburg. He is one 
of the few men still living whom we may class as "great." 

Captain Barney, U. S, Navy 

Captain Joseph N. Barney was born in Baltimore in 1818. 
He graduated from Annapolis first in his class in 1834 and 
spent many years at sea until 1861, when he resigned to ofifer 
his services to the Confederacy. 

iHe commanded the "Jamestown" at the Battle of Hamp- 
ton Roads, March 8th and 9th, 1862, and, on April nth, was 
sent in to capture vessels under the guns of the Monitor, 
hoping to provoke the latter to come out and fight. 

He commanded a battery at the fight at Drury's Blufif, 
and later in the war took part in the operations at the Sabine 

117 



Captain Lynch — Commander Minor 

pass and was sent to command the C. S. Cruiser Florida, but 
was prevented by ill health. He was purchasing agent for the 
Confederacy at the cessation of the hostilities, and after the 
war made one voyage in the command of a commercial 
steamer. Captain Barney made his home in Fredericksburg 
from 1874 to 1899, when his death occurred. His career was 
a distinguished one and he had in his later years, spent here, 
a host of friends in Fredericksburg. 

Captain Lynch, U. S. Navy 

Captain M. F. Lynch was born near Fredericksburg, in 
1 80 1 was appointed a midshipman in the U. S. Navy in 1819, 
promoted to Lieutenant in 1828, and shortly afterwards made 
an important scientific investigation of the topography of the 
Dead Sea Valley in Palestine. He made the first correct 
maps and soundings of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, and 
his report was published by the United States Government 
and much valued by the scientific world. He was made a 
Captain in 1856 and held this rank when he resigned to enter 
the Confederate Navy. His work with the Virginia Navy in 
the defenses of Aquia Creek and the Potomac was compli- 
mented by his opponents, and later he took part in the defense 
of the coast of North Carolina, winning much credit by his 
zealous action at the battles of Hatteras Inlet and Roanoke 
Island. 

In 1864 Captain Lynch was transferred to duty on the 
Mississippi River, where he aided in the preparation of the 
famous ram, the Arkansas, for her brilliant career. He died 
in Baltimore, October 17, 1865. 

Commander George Minor, C. S. N. 

Commander George Minor resigned from the United 
States Navy in April, 1861, and was immediately put in com- 
mand of the newly created Bureau of Ordinance and Hydro- 
graphy at Richmond. This Bureau was of invaluable service 

118 



Thurman — Ruggles — Maury 

to the young Confederacy, sending out 220 guns in the first 
year. Commander Minor was instrumental in establishing 
the arsenals at Atlanta and New Orleans and other points. 
He spent his last years in our City, well remembered by many 
of the present generation. He died in 1878. While residing 
in Fredericksburg he lived in what was the late College 
Building. 

Commander Robert D. Thurman 

Commander Robert D. Thorburn was a member of the 
old Naval Service, coming to Virginia in 1861, and being at 
once named to take part in the defenses of the Potomac under 
Captain Lynch. He later was detailed to duty on the Gulf 
Coast, and after the war came to Fredericksburg where he 
died in 1883. He resided in the house on lower Princess Anne 
Street, now occupied by W. D. Scott, Esq. 

Major Edward Ruggles 

Major Edward Ruggles was graduated from Annapolis in 
1859, came South in 1861 and offered his services to the State 
of Virginia, before that State joined the Confederacy. He 
was later transferred to the Confederate Army, and served on 
the staff of General Daniel S. Ruggles in the engagements at 
Aquia Creek, being present at the first engagement of the 
Civil War, June i, 1861. Later he served with the Army 
of Tennessee and after the war lived in King George and 
Fredericksburg, where he died in 19 19, at his residence on 
lower Main Street. He was one of three men who aided John 
Wilkes Booth to cross the Rappahannock at Fort Royal, and 
directed him to the Garrett barn, where Booth met his death. 

Colonel Richard L. Maury 

Colonel Richard L. Maury, a son of Commodore Matthew 
Fontaine Maury, was bom in Fredericksburg in 1840. Upon 
the outbreak of the War between the States he at once offered 

119 



Commodore Domin — Surgeon Beck 

his services to his native State, and his Naval Career, though 
short, is notable. Detached from Company F, Richmond, ist 
Va. Regiment, by order of the Secretary of the Navy, he took 
part in the capture of the St. Nicholas and other vessels on 
the Potomac and Chesapeake. He was afterwards returned 
to the Army and served with the 24th Va. Infantry until 
Appomattox. After the War he resided in Lexington and 
Richmond, in which latter city he died a few years ago. 

Commodore Domin 

Commodore Thomas Domin, U. S. N., like many other 
officers of the old Navy, often left his family in Fredericks- 
burg while absent on the long tours of sea duty, sometimes 
two and even three years in length. Thus, while a native of 
Ireland, where he was born in 1801, Commodore Domin called 
our town "home" for many years. 

Entering the U. S. Navy in 1818, after many voyages to 
all parts of the iworld he was with Admiral Perry when the 
latter forced his way into the Japanese harbors. When the 
war between the States was imminent, he retained his place 
in the old Navy, with the promise that he would not be ordered 
to action against his adopted State. 

He served on the Light House Board at Baltimore for 
the duration of the war, and upon his retirement in 1870 lived 
in Fredericksburg, for a time. He died in Savannah, Ga., in 

1873. 

He resided, when in Fredericksburg, in the house now 
owned by Dr. C. Mason Smith on Prince Edward Street. 

William Henry Beck 

Surgeon William Henry Beck, U. S. Navy, came to Vir- 
ginia from England as a lad of twelve in 1800. Some years 
later he entered the Navy as an Assistant Surgeon, and made 
several voyages in the old sailing ships to various ports of 
the world. 

120 



Lieutenant John R. Bryan 

He married Miss England, of Stafford, and made his 
home in Fredericksburg, 

He lived in what was then a northwestern suburb, near 
the present basin, and this section was known as "Becksville." 
He was at one time a police officer in our town, and as the 
result of an injury in arresting a prisoner, lost an arm. 

He died in the fifties, and was buried in St. George's 
Churchyard. A son bought and lived for years on what is 
known by our old citizens as "Beck's Island," now owned 
and occupied by Mr. J. A. Emery. 

John Randolph Bryan 

Lieutenant John Randolph Bryan, U. S. Navy, born in 
1806, in Georgia, was educated in Virginia, and married at 
Chatham in 1830, Elizabeth Coalter, daughter of Judge John 
Coalter, of the Virginia Supreme Court. Leaving Yale in 
1823, Lieutenant Bryan was appointed to the Navy, became 
midshipman in 1824, and was ordered to the Peacock. 

He resigned in 183 1 and took charge of his estate at 
Wilmington Island, and later an estate in Gloucester County, 
Virginia. 

In 1862, he offered his services to the Confederate Navy, 
but was judged too old. He was the ward of John Randolph, 
who made a deep impression upon his mentality. 

Lieutenant Bryan was noted for his courtesy and charm 
of manner. He spent his latter years in the house of his 
daughter in Fredericksburg, Mrs. Spotswood W. Carmichael. 
He died at the University of Virginia, fwhile on a visit, on 
September 13, 1887. 

The name of Mrs. Spotswood W. Carmichael will recall 
to many Dr. Carmichael, that splendid physician and gentle- 
man of "the old school" who ministered to the sick of a pre- 
vious generation and had a host of loyal friends. 

121 



Captain Reuben Thorn, C. S N. 

Captain Thom, U. S. M. C. 

Captain Reuben Thom, of the Confederate Marine Corps, 
was the son of "Postmaster Thom" and was born in Freder- 
icksburg. He entered the war at Norfolk in 1861, and in 
1862 was in command of the Marines on the famous Merri- 
mac in the battle of Hampton Roads. Captain Thom took 
part in the engagement at Drury's Bluff. After the war 
Captain Thom moved to Baltimore where he died. 



122 







^ 



Unforgotten Women 

Some of Many Who Left a Record of Brilliancy, Service or Sacrifice. 

The stars that shine in the galaxy of the heavens do not 
all glow with the same lustre. One is gifted with a steady 
and dependable splendor, another scintillates and fades to shine 
afresh. So, it is, that the women of Fredericksburg have in 
their individual ways added to the glories of the town and 
well sustained its deserved reputation, as being the home of 
capable, brilliant, and beautiful women. A distinguished 
French officer once said, after meeting one of the women of 
Fredericksburg, "If such are the' matrons of America, well 
may she boast of illustrious sons." This was at the great 
Peace Ball, given in the totwn in 1783, to which, of course, 
the mother of Washington was especially invited. The simple 
manner and appearance of the great woman, surprised the 
gallant officers present, and provoked from one of them the 
remark. 

Clad in a plain but becoming garb, that characterized 
Virginia women of her type, she received the many attentions 
paid to the Mother of the idolized Commander-in-Chief with 
the most unaffected dignity and courtesy. Being accustomed 
to the pomp and splendor which is attached to Old World 
royalty, it was a revelation to them to behold such a woman. 
How could she live in the blaze of glory which irradiated her 
illustrious offspring, and still preserve her simple dignity of 
manner, so barren of self pride and hauteur! 

But this daughter of Colonel Joseph Ball, of Lancaster 
County, this "Rose of Epping Forest" which budded into ex- 
istence on March 6, 1708, this unassuming woman, who on the 
anniversary of her natal day in 1730, gave her heart and hand 
to the master of Wakefield, this thrifty and systematic young 
housewife and widowed mother at Pine Grove, in Stafford 
County, this matron of Fredericksburg, possessed qualities 

123 



The "Rose of Epping Forest" 

individual to her who became the author of the being of the 
greatest and best loved character figuring on the pages of 
American history. Her last home selected for her by General 
Washington, stands today, on the corner of Charles and Lewis 
Streets, the same home with the characteristic simplicity of 
years ago. The Association for the Preservation of Virginia 
Antiquities, to which Society it now belongs, has restored in 
part the interior with its wainscoting and paneling and its 
period furniture. The interesting old brick floored kitchen, 
with its hugh fireplace, and its crane, iron pots, skillets and 
equipment of former days, all seem today in perfect accord 
with her reception of her cherished offspring in 1783, After 
an enforced cessation of visits to his aging mother for a long 
period of seven years, she at length was told by an orderly 
that "His Excellency" had arrived, and was at her very door. 
Turning quietly to her faithful, ebony maid, she said with her 
habitual self control, "Patsy, George has come, I shall need a 
white apron." But beneath this calm exterior, her embrace of 
her first born son was overflowing with fervent 'mother-love, 
and hidden away in the deep recesses of her heart was the 
swelling pride in his glory. Senator Daniel truthfully said, 
"The principles which he applied to a nation were those simple 
and elementary truths which she first imprinted upon his mind 
in the discipline of home." 

The splendid granite monument, erected to her, with its 
simple inscription, "Mary, the Mother of Washington," and 
on the reverse side: "Erected by her Countrywomen," rises 
from a massive foundation to a distance of 59 feet. Her 
ashes lie beneath, in a spot of her own selection, (which in 
her lifetime was a part of the Kenmore estate) and her 
favorite resting place. Nearby are the two rocks upon which 
she used to sit and read her Bible. These are known as Medi- 
tation Rocks." 



The name of Susan Metcalf ' Savage will always be held 
in the highest veneration by those of Fredericksburg who 
realize and appreciate the many sacrifices, heart-aches, self- 

124 



Susan Savage and Anne Maury 

denials and home-longings experienced by those who give their 
lives in heathen lands'. Brought up in an atmosphere of love 
and unselfishness, and herself devoted to every call of duty, it 
was no surprise to her many friends to learn that soon 
after her marriage to Reverend Dr. Savage in 1838 she 
would sail with him for tropical Africa, one of the first 
woman missionaries from our land. Though her life in this 
then unusual field of usefulness was less than two short years, 
her labors were not in vain, and her works and her example 
will live for years to come. 

Ann Herndon, who became the wife of the great scientist, 
Matthew Fontaine Maury, was born in the house on the corner 
of Princess Anne and George Streets, erected by her father, 
Dabney M. Herndon. Her loveliness of face and character 
was equalled by her charming manner, and attractive person- 
ality, and whether in Fredericksburg, or Lexington, Va., 
whether in Washington or London, her home was the spot 
where the savant, the scientist, the literati and men and women 
representing every phase of culture and social distinction, were 
wont to assemble. The beautiful jewels presented to her by the 
crowned heads of Europe, (her illustrious husband, being an 
officer in the United States Navy, was restricted from accept- 
ing gifts, else his admirers would have showered them upon 
him), were deservedly famous. After 'the death of Commo- 
dore Maury a plan was conceived by a member of one of the 
royal courts of Europe, and initiatory steps had already been 
taken, to raise a munificent sum of mony with which to honor 
the widow of the man to whom all educated nations were to 
pay homage. But when their project reached her ear, she 
refused to accept it, though recognizing and appreciating fully 
the compliment to her devoted husband. 

One of the captivating belles of the town was Ellen Lewis 
Herndon, daughter of the Naval Commander, Captain Wil- 
liam Lewis Herndon, who in 1857 met his death in the Gulf 

125 



President Arthur's Wife 

Stream. Being possessed of a rich contralto voice, Miss 
Hemdon made frequent visits to the National Capitol, and 
delighted the congregations at old St. John's Church with her 
sweet, rich tones. It was here that the young attorney, Chester 
A. Arthur, afterwards President, became infatuated with the 
pretty young singer. Those old days were the parents of 
these days, and many were the whispers of conjecture and 
surmise as toi the outcome of those frequent visits of the hand- 
some Mr. Arthur to the home of Ellen Hemdon, (that still 
strikingly pretty residence on Main and Charlotte Streets), and 
shortly before the War between the States, a pretty wedding 
was solemnized in New York City, and Ellen Hemdon became 
the bride of Chester A. Arthur. ^ 



In the heart-rending times of i86i-'65, the women of 
Fredericksburg with untiring energy and courage, in the midst 
of the agony of war, assumed the laborious task of ministering 
alike to soldiers in blue and gray, and many burdens of sorrow 
were in some way lightened and many a physical pain lessened 
or a soul cheered. Perhaps the women of Fredericksburg 
were inspired to great deeds by the example of that splendid 
specimen of womanhood, Clara Barton, who for sometime 
was stationed near Chatham, carrying on her splendid minis- 
tration to the sick and suffering Federal soldiers. 



Of Woman's Work 

It was on May lo, 1866, that the women of Fredericks- 
burg, urged by Mrs. Frances Seymour White, (widoiw of an 
officer in the U. S. Army, who died as the war began), assem- 
bled in the lecture rootn of St. George's Church to form an 
association to care for the memory of the noble Southern 
heroes, whose graves were then scattered over battlefield and 
farm. This was the first step towards the formation of the 
Ladies Memorial Association the work of which organization, 
begun so earnestly and lovingly, has so successfully been ful- 

126 



The Memorial Association 

filled. Mrs, John H. Wallace, was elected President and Mrs. 
Frances Seymour White, Vice-President. On Mrs. Wallace's 
death, Mrs. White was chosen President, and continued until 
1882, when she was succeeded by her daughter, Mrs. Francis B. 
Goolrick, who continued to act as President for eleven years. 
Mrs. Maria K. Daniel followed next for seventeen years, and 
Mrs. Frances B. Goolrick, who was elected in 19 12 is still 
President. 

With the financial assistance of about all the Southern 
States and a good deal from the North the bodies of the Con- 
federate soldiers have been re-interred in the Confederate 
cemetery, and each is marked with a solid granite headstone. 
Later with some financial assistance the splendid monument 
"To the Confederate Dead," was erected in the center of the 
cemetery. The base is of gray granite, quarried in Spotsyl- 
vania County, and the life-like statue of the Confederate sol- 
dier on dress parade, which surmounts the apex, is of bronze. 

The beautiful custom of Memorial Day sprang from Mrs. 
Frances Seymour White's idea and spread from this city all 
over the nation. The naime of "The Ladies Memorial Asso- 
iation" was adopted and in the Spring season each year, this 
impressive service is continued. Following those true hearted 
women who conceived the task of rescuing from oblivion the 
memory of those brave and fallen heroes, the United Daugh- 
ters of the Confederacy, and the women of Fredericksburg 
branch of the American Red Cross, have each in their respec- 
tive spheres', earnestly and lovingly performed their tasks. 



The recent passing from our midst of the material pres- 
ence of a worthy representative of the women of Fredericks- 
burg, inspired the glowing tribute to the 'women of Virginia, 
appearing as an editorial in a local paper. The writer says 
in part, "We shall ever cherish the recollection that old Vir- 
ginia had a womanhood of whom the people of the nation 
must be proud. Lest we be misunderstood we would have it 
known that we boast today of our womanhood and are hon- 

127 



Mary Washington Hospital 

ored by those now among us ; yet no one can successfully deny 
that the type of wotmen of the Old Dominion of the bygone 
years was of an exceptional character. They were the result 
of the very environment in which they were born and reared. 
For purity of purpose, for modesty of demeanor and conver- 
sation, for unselfish devotion to home where there was real 
happiness, for gentleness, for refinement, for self abnegation, 
for love of God and the Church, for unostentatious charity, 
and for high motherhood, she has never had superiors. For 
all the essential attributes and elements which go to form a 
splendid woman without guile and without reproach, we haz- 
ard nothing in declaring that Virginia — in the World's Hall 
of Fame — gives to her womanhood of olden days her laurel of 
immortal glory." 

Another work which will always be a tribute to woman's 
indefatigable and preserving efforts, is the Mary Washington 
Hospital, beautifully situated on the river's bank immediately 
facing the lawns and Terraces of Chatham, and when the 
trees are bare in winter, affording a view of the imposing 
mansion. Here, since 1897, thousands of sick have been cared 
for and nursed back to health and strength with more scientific 
care and almost as much loving attention as they could receive 
in their own homes. In 1897 the corner-stone was laid and 
from that time the Hospital has steadily grown and pro- 
gressed, gaining in strength and usefulness, and now is recog- 
nized as essential to the city and surrounding counties. The 
idea of establishing the Hospital was originated by two or 
three ladies and the work put actively in motion by Mrs. W. 
Seymour White and Mrs. M. F. Tankard, who constituted 
themselves a committee to form an auxiliary society, which 
supported by Mr. W. Seymour White, who was at that time 
Mayor of the City, obtained a sufficient sum to purchase a 
lot and build a small house of a few rooms. A Hospital Asso- 
ciation was formed, and the women did almost phenomenal 
work in struggling through many discouragements, never 
losing faith, but pressing forward and overcoming every 

128 



Mary Washington Monument 

obstacle until their efforts were crowned with success and the 
Hospital established on a firm foundation. Now the few 
rooms have grown into a commodious building accommo- 
dating thirty or forty patients, a Nurses Home and corps 
of young women in training. Mrs. W. Seymour White beame 
the first president — elected because of her interest in estab- 
lishing it, and in recognition of the strong support given it by 
her husband as Mayor, who in that capacity was able to weild 
an influence that helped materially towards its success. 



The Mary Washington Monument has a history too long 
to be embraced in this volume and only a brief sketch of it will 
be appropriate. "The Building of a Monument" was written 
by Miss Susan Riviere Hetzel, and published in 1903. She 
was at the time Secretary of the National Mary Washington 
Memorial Association, following her mother Mrs. Margaret 
Hetzel, its first Secretary. 

The idea of erecting a new monument to Mary Washing- 
ton seemed to spring up simultaneously in Fredericksburg and 
in Boston, and spread like wild-fire over the country. Miss 
Hetzel claims priority for her mother, while the actual first 
published movement took place in Fredericksburg. Two let- 
ters were written and published on the same date in the Wash- 
ington Post. Both letters were written in the spring just at 
the time of the Johnstown flood, and held in the newspaper 
office, probably overlooked, until October. On October 13th 
the movement crystalized into a large meeting in Fredericks- 
burg. The writers of the two letters became acquainted 
through a mutual interest. Mrs. Goolrick's letter proposed a 
National Organization with a President and one Vice-Presi- 
dent for each State. Mrs. Hetzel's letter suggested that "every 
woman as far as. able give one dollar to the proposed monu- 
ment with the Washington Post as Treasurer for the fund, 
and to acknowledge daily the donations received." On the 
appearance of the letters in the Washington Post Mrs. Hetzel 
wrote to Mrs. Goolrick, congratulating her on the plan she 

129 



Dedication of Monument 

proposed, stating that such a plan was then practically in 
operation, and had been worked up during the summer, Mrs. 
Waite, wife of Chief Justice Waite, was made president, but 
they wished no publication or mention made of it until they 
obtained their Charter. On November 8th, 1889, the Freder- 
icksburg Association received its Charter. The National Asso- 
ciation was chartered February 22nd, 1890. On the loth of 
May, 1894, the Mary Washington Monument was dedicated, 
with great form and ceremony and with the largest crowd 
ever gathered in Fredericksburg. Visitors flocked from all 
over the country. The streets were in gala attire. American, 
and Virginia State flags fluttered everywhere "with the buff, 
blue and gold insignia of the Ball family, which floated before 
the homes of Mary Ball's decendants. A special train from 
Washington arrived at ten o'clock bringing the President of 
the United States, Grover Cleveland, the Chief Justice, mem- 
bers of the Cabinet and other invited guests with the ladies of 
the National Mary Washington Memorial Association, the 
Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Marine Band, 
Military Companies from Richmond, Alexandria and other 
cities were present, and with the various orders of the city made 
an imposing spectacle. The Grand Lodge of Masons from this 
and other places closed the procession, with the Grand Master 
of the Grand Lodge of Virginia, and the Grand Secretary of 
the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia following in its 
wake. On the immense rostrum near the Monument were 
seated all the officials, and Societies, with seats reserved for 
the descendants of Mary Ball who were specially invited by 
the National Association. They had been summoned from 
the East and from the West, one invitation going to Japan to 
Paymaster Mason Ball, U. S. N. 

The ceremonies opened with a prayer by Rev. James 
Power Smith. Mayor Rowe next welcomed on the part of 
the city the President, Governor and other distinguished guests. 
He gave a brief account of the first monument and laying of 
the corner stone by President Andrew Jackson, with an elo- 
quent tribute to the Mary Washington Association and "the 

130 




Marv Washington Monument 

Standing at the Spot that* She Selected for Her Graz'e. The Only 
MoiritJiieut Built />v Women In a U'oinan 



Lawrence Washington's Talk 

noble women in various sections, some of whom grace this 
occasion by their presence today." The President of the 
United States was welcomed by Governor Charles T. O'Fer- 
rall on behalf of the Commonwealth of Virginia. An 
impressive address was then delivered by the President. The 
Monument was then dedicated by the Grand Master of Masons 
of Virginia — Mann Page and the Grand Lodge of Virginia, 
assisted by Fredericksburg Lodge No. 4 where Washington 
was' made a Mason, and the Grand Lodge of Alexandria, of 
which he was the first Master. Mr. Lawrence Washington 
was introduced by the President as a lineal descendant of 
Mary, the Mother of Washington. He gave an interesting 
sketch of her life, home, parentage, widowhood and the char- 
acter of her children. The President next introduced the 
orator of the day, Hon. John W. Daniel. He is said to have 
pronounced on this occasion the ablest oratorical effort of his 
life. 

Governor O'Ferrall at the request of the Fredericksburg 
Mary Washington Monument Association read a set of en- 
grossed resolutions which were presented to Mrs. Waite as 
President of the National Society, This concluded the cere- 
monies. President Cleveland after holding a general recep- 
tion on the monument grounds was entertained at the home of 
Hon. W. Seymour White, editor of the Free Lance, and 
afterwards Mayor of the city. It was a brilliant gathering. 
Cabinet Officers and their wives, the Governor of Virginia and 
Staff, and distinguished citizens of the town and elsewhere 
to greet them. The ladies of the National Board were enter- 
tained at the home of Mrs. V. M. Fleming, president of the 
local association. President Cleveland repaired to the Mary 
Washington House where he requested he should receive all 
the descendants of the Balls and Washingtons. "There he 
had the satisfaction of grasping the hands and enjoying the 
conversation of the nearest living relatives of his first and 
greatest predecessor, in the home of his honored mother." 

A banquet was given by the citizens in the Opera, House, 
and a large Ball that night in the same place. Thus closed a 
memorable day in the annals of Fredericksburg, 

131 



Story of Older Monument * 

The land on which the monument is built, on the same 
site as that occupied by the first monument, was given by Mr. 
George Shepherd, a prominent and wealthy merchant, to the 
Fredericksburg Mary Washington Monument Association, 
and was transferred at the dedication of the monument by a 
conditional deed to the National Association. 

The first monument to the memory of Mary Washington 
was partly erected by Silas Burrows of New York, who as 
rumor has it, fell in love with one of the Gregory girls — great 
nieces of George Washington. It was of handsome design, 
but never finished, and the marble shaft lay prostrate for many 
years, cracked and discolored, while the base, with its beautiful 
four carved columns was a target for both armies during the 
Civil war. 

The corner stone of this first monument was laid in 1833, 
with much pomp, the President of the United States — Gen. 
Andrew Jackson — takingpartwith Cabinet Officers and escorts, 
The people of Fredericksburg previous to Mr. Burrows' offer, 
had made efforts to raise money for a memorial to Mary 
Washington. Hearing of this he wrote to the Mayor, offering 
to give and erect the monument himself. The monument had 
reached completion with the exception of placing the shaft, 
when Mr. Burrows went abroad and never reappeared, the 
same Madam Rumor attributing it to the disappointment he 
experienced at the failure to win the hand of Miss Gregory, 
the daughter of Mildred Washington, the niece of the im- 
mortal George. 

The present monument is splendidly cared for by the 
National Association with the Secretary of the Association, a 
Fredericksburg lady in charge and living on the grounds in a 
beautiful cottage built by the National Mary Washington 
Monument Association. 



132 



At the Rising Sun 

Where Famous Men Met; and Mine Host Breiued Punch and Sedition. 

Standing back a few feet from the Main Street of Fred- 
ericksburg, the Rising Sun Tavern looks out on the automo- 
biles and trucks that hurry by over the concrete streets. Silk 
and woolen mills and "pants" factories spin and weave and 
rumble, while the old tavern, with the dignity of its century 
and a half calmly flaunts the sign of the rising sun with its 
radii of red light. The knocker that felt the hand of almost 
every famous American of early days still hangs kindly out. 

Built in 1750 or 1760, the Rising Sun Tavern is at least 
160 years old. In the days when American men were slowly 
being forced from their English allegiance it stood in an open 
space, surrounded by green trees. The road on which it was 
built ran out from Fredericksburg toward Falmouth and the 
"upper county," and the tavern was outside the city limits. 

If one could stand and see the tavern as in a movie "fade 
out," the modern houses about it would dim, and, fresh in 
making and painting, the old tavern would stand alone beside 
a rutted road alongside which a footpath runs through the 
grass. Oak trees line the road, and reach down to the river. 
On the porch, or passing up and down the steps are gentlemen 
of the Northern Neck, the Potomac plantations, and the Rap- 
pahannock Valley, in splendid broadcloth, laced ruffles, black 
silk stockings, with buckles at the knees and the instep, pow- 
dered hair and the short wigs then the fashion, and ladies in 
the fashionable red cloaks and long, full dresses with the 
"Gypsy bonnets" tied under their chins, and hair "crimped" 
and rolled at each side. 

At the back yard of the tavern in the old garden grew a 
profusion of tulips, pink violets, purple iris, hyacinths and 
the flowering almond and passion fruit, with here and there 

133 



When Weedon Was the Host 

rose bushes. Inside in the front room flamed the log fire and 
at the rear of this was the dining-room, where for men and 
women and boys, the old negro slave who served the gentle 
folk had mint juleps, or claret that had thrice crossed the 
ocean, or brandy and soda. 

Virginia in the days between 1760 and 1776 reached the 
"golden age," and it was during these times that George 
Weedon, host of the Rising Sun, made that hostelry famous 
for its hospitality, and made himself famous for his constant 
advocacy of American liberty. Of Weedon, who was later 
to become a general and win commendation at the Battle of 
Brandywine, the English traveler. Dr. Smith, wrote: "I put 
up at the tavern of one Weedon, who was ever active and 
zealous in blowing the flames of sedition." 

Weedon, one of the pioneers of the movement for free- 
dom, made his Tavern the gathering place for all the gentle- 
men of the "neighborhood" of which Dr. Smith says: "The 
neighborhood included all of Westmoreland County, the 
Northern Neck and all other counties as far as Mount 
Vernon." 

John Davis, a Welshman who came to America to teach, 
has left us a sketch of the tavern of that day and of the people 
who frequented it, and a part of what Mr. Davis wrote is well 
worth quoting: "On the porch of the tavern," he says, "I 
found a party of gentlemen of the neighboring plantations 
sitting over a bowl of toddy and smoking cigars. On ascend- 
ing the steps to the piazza, every countenance seemed to say, 
This man has a double claim to our attention, for he is a 
stranger in the place.' In a moment room was made for me 
to sit down, and a new bowl of punch called for, and every 
one addressed me with a smile of conciliation. The higher 
Virginians seem to venerate themselves. I am persuaded 
that not one of that company would have felt embarrassed 
at being admitted to the presence and conversation of the 
greatest monarch on earth," 

Attracted by its hospitality and by the constant meeting 
before the wood-fire of men whose influence was great, gentle- 

134 



Where Famous Men Often Met 

men from all Virginia came to the Rising- Sun. George Mason^ 
who Gillard Hunt of the Library of Congress says was "more 
than any other man entitled to be called the Father of the 
Declaration of Independence," was frequently there. The 
young man from Monticello, Thomas Jefferson, who was 
Mason's pupil in politics, spent much time at Gunston and was 
often at the tavern. 

George Washington, whose home was in Fredericksburg, '^ 
knew the tavern well, and Hug'h Mercer, a young physician, 
and brother-in-law of mine host Weedon (they having mar- 
ried the two Misses Gordon), spent a great deal of time there. 
Other guests who heard the news and who read of events 
when the weekly stage brought the belated mail from Wil- 
liamsburg, to the Tavern Postoffice, where "Light Horse" 
Harry Lee and Charles Lee, from their near-by home at 
Wakefield, Charles Carter, son of the mighty "King" Carter, 
who came from "Cleve" ; John Marshall, Dr. Mortimer, the 
Tayloes, of "Mt. Airy"; John Minor, (afterwards general,) of 
Hazel Hill; young James Monroe, practicing as an attorney 
in Fredericksburg and acting as a member of the town council 
and vestryman of St. George's Church; Samuel, Charles and 
John Augustine Washington, brothers of George, as well as 
Fielding Lewis', who married George's sister Betty, and was 
afterwards a general in the revolutionary army. Many of the 
frequenters of the tavern held high commissions during the 
war. 

It is a matter of undoubted record that these, and half 
a hundred other young men, whose names were to become 
synonymous with freedom, discussed at the Rising Sun 
Tavern the topics of the day, chief among which was the 
rights of the colonist. The fiery Irishman, George Weedon, 
arranged and organized conferences and wrote numerous 
letters, and long before men had ceased to respect the English 
king, he was bold enough to propose for the first time the 
toast, "May the Rose grow and the Thistle flourish, and may 
the Harp be attuned to the cause of American liberty," thus 
expressing his desife that his native land, and Scotland, should 

135 



First "Rebellions" Troops 

aid America. And he was not disappointed, for afterwards 
he would say that he was "ever proud that besides himself, 
America had for generals such Irishmen as 'Mad Anthony' 
Wayne, Sullivan, Moylan and Irvine." 

In these talks at the Rising Sun, where sometimes the 
great men of the time met night after night, those principles 
that went in the Bill of Rights of Virginia — were fully dis- 
cussed before freedom from England was demanded ; and here, 
where gathered lawyers and planters and men of profession, 
many of them members of the House of Burgesses, there must 
have been conceived a great many principles that afterwards 
went to make the Constitution. This was the true "cradle" of 
American liberty. 

John Paul Jones when only thirteen years old, heard the 
first discussion of such things, probably, when he called at the 
tavern post-office for mail for his brother, William Paul, who 
kept a tailor shop and grocery. 

When Lord Dunmore seized the powder at Williamsburg 
in 1775, the first troops organized in Virginia to fight against 
the authority of the king, started from Fredericksburg. It 
seems certain that the plans were made at the Rising Sun 
Tavern, and George Weedon was the leading spirit. Hugh 
Mercer was elected colonel, Mordecai Buckner, lieutenant- 
colonel, and Robert Johnson, major. 

But the apex of the tavern's glory was reached when 
the great peace ball was held officially to celebrate the end of 
the war, and Washington led the minuet in the Fredericksburg 
town hall. Of those who came, tradition says, none failed to 
visit General Weedon's tavern, though the genial Irishman 
was now about to leave it and move into the home left without 
a head >when General Mercer fell. 

Among those who came to Fredericksburg and were at 
some time guests at the famous old inn, besides those named 
were Brigadier General Stephen Moylan, another Irishman 
who served as Washington's aide, as commissary general and 
as commander of troops at Yorktown; Brigadier-General 

136 




fc. 



^ 



Q -Q 



Pi 
w 
> 

< 



CO 

f5 ^ 



§^ 



^ 






Beautiful Colonial Belles 

Irvine, Irish too, and here at Weedon's insistence; Count 
Beaumarchais, author of the "Barber of Seville" and general 
in the American army; the Marquis de Lafayette, the Vis- 
counts d'Nouvalles, Count d'Estang-, Baron Viominel, and 
many others. 

But who were the ladies then? History does not say, 
but the dancing master, Mr. Christian, who taught the "gentle 
young ladies" through the "neighborhood," and has left 
sketches of their personal manner and dress, has described 
for us a host of them, many of them misses of 15 and 16, 
who now would be called girls but were quite young ladies 
then, 

. Miss Lucy Lightfoot Lee was "tall and stately" (at 16), 
Mr. Christian says, "wearing a bright chintz gown with a 
blue stamp, elegantly made, a blue silk quilt, and stays, now said 
to be the fashion in London but to my mind a great nuisance." 
While Miss Hale danced in "a white Holland gown, quilt 
very fine, a lawn apron, her hair crimped up in two rolls at 
each side and a tuft of ribbon for a cap." 

It is easy to surmise that the charming Gregory girls, 
now married, were there, and that little Maria Mortimer, who 
on the night following the Peace Ball, at 15 years of age, was 
hostess for all the great gentlemen, was also a guest, as well 
as Miss Betsy Lee, Martha Custis, and Posey Custis, Molly 
Posey, Anne Mason, Alice Lee, and Mary Ambler (later to 
become the wife of Chief Justice Marshall), Sally Patton, 
"lately come from England to teach," the two Turberville 
girls, Priscilla Carter, Jenny Washington and the Lewis girls, 
the Taylor girls, and the Fitzhughs, of Boscobel and Chatham. 

The old tavern is well-preserved and is taken care of by 
the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. 
Not much change has been made in it since the days of its 
glory, when at its hospitable hearth young James Monroe 
argued for the emancipation of slaves, George Mason spoke 
his views on the rights of man, Weedon talked forever "sedi- 
tion" with Mercer, who hated England since he had felt defeat 



Names of Great Virginians 

at the disaster of Colloden and crept from Scotland a hunted 
man, Jefferson discussed his broad principles, and the Ran- 
dolphs, Blands, Byrds, Harrisons, Moncures, Taliaferros, 
Fitzhughs, Lewises of Marmion, Carters of Cleve, Raleigh 
Travers (of Sir Walter's family) of Stafford, Peter Daniel of 
"Crows Nest," Thomas Fitzhugh, Selden of Salvington, Brent 
of Bellevue, Ludwell Lee of "Berry Hill," Richard Henry Lee 
of "Wakefield," and other famous men gathered, in those 
crowded days before the Revolution. 



138 



Lafayette Comes Back 

After Forty Years of Failure, He Hears the Echo of His Youthful Triumph. 

Forty years after his return to France at the end of the 
American Revolution, General Lafayette came back to visit 
the nation he had helped to create. Cities of the United States 
heaped honor and hospitality upon him. The people greeted 
him in villages and taverns as he traveled, and it is not 
strange that he returned to France "astonished" at the vigor 
of the young republic. 

He himself had seen France taste freedom, turn to the 
Terror, accept Bonaparte's dictatorship and fight the world — 
and he had taken his part in it all, even to five years spent in 
a prison cell. Now he beheld on the throne again the scions 
of the same monarch who had tried in vain to prevent his aid- 
ing America in her fight for freedom, and, his title and estates 
gone, he must have felt France's failure to realize such ideals 
of government as he and Washington knew, as keenly as he 
appreciated the "astonishing" march of democracy on this 
continent. 

Entertained first in the North, Lafayette hurried South 
to see Jefferson at Monticello for a day. From the Charlottes- 
ville estate he traveled to Orange Courthouse, and thence, over 
the road his army had cut through "The Wilderness" and 
which even to this day is known as "The Marquis Road," he 
came to Wilderness Tavern, where he was met by an escort 
from Fredericksburg. 

Fredericksburg was awaiting him, and Lafayette was 
glad of the opportunity to spend the greater part of a week 
in the "home town" of George Washington, to visit Wash- 
ington's relatives, and to meet those of the Revolutionary 
general still living in the place. He had been to Fredericks- 
burg before in 1774, an honored guest at "The Peace Ball." 
He had said that he felt more at home in Fredericksburg than 
anywhere in America. 

139 



Peculiar Items of Expense 

General Washington, Mrs. Washington, General Mercer, 
General Weedon — a dozen of his closer friends whom he had 
left behind forty years ago — were dead, but among the Fred- 
ericksburg people there were still numbers who knew him, 
some who had entertained him, and many who had fought 
with him. 

That Fredericksburg did her best and that good cheer 
was not lacking when the general arrived, is recorded in the 
old courthouse of that city in the official bill of expenses for 
the entertainment of the distinguished guest. On these yellow 
papers written in the careful hand of that day, are bills for 
ribbons and laces and cocked hats, sperm candles and cakes, 
oranges (at $1.20 a dozen), cockades, cloaks and "everything" 
that might assist in making the November days of the Mar- 
quis' stay glide right merrily. 

' Before the general arrived there was preliminary work, 
and this is recorded in a number of bills, among them that 
of Sally Stokes who had one for "cleaning and schowering 
the town hall, and whitening the steps and cleaning the walls, 
etc. — I charge for myself and 2 other women — $2.25." 
Her charge was probably a little high as the work was for 
the city. "Benj. Day" got the draying contract and profiteered 
in the following rate : 

"Dr. me for myself and team and dray for 4 days hauling 
for the Entertainment Commit. $6.00." Also among the bills 
for labor is one: 

"To John Scott, Dr. to hire of my man Billy, the painter, 
for 6 days to paint the market house, $4.50," while "Mary 
Lucas," a "freewoman," got $1.25 for "sawing 2 1-2 cords 
of wood." 

General Lafayette was met at Orange by a committee 
and under its escort he journeyed south, (along that forest 
road which his army cut when with "Mad Anthony Wayne" 
he followed Tarleton into the unsettled parts of Virginia and 
the Carolinas,) to the Wilderness and to Fredericksburg. It 
is possible that some message had to be sent from or to his 

140 



George Gary's Great Thirst 

escort, in fact it is evident, for George Gary has left record 
of it, and in presenting his bill he has left as well his individu- 
ality and his photograph behind him. If one remembers that 
brandy was $i.oo a gallon, he needs little more of George 
Gary's history than this, 

"To George Gary for services rendered as messenger, to 
the Wilderness, including self and horse, $7.00. 

"and drink, $1.75" 

"Deduct 50c. advanced him by the Mayor, $8.25." 

Near Fredericksburg, and almost at the spot where dur- 
ing the Revolution the camp of Hessian prisoners was kept. 
General Lafayette was met by a military escort commanded 
by Golonel John Stannard. When the cavalcade reached the 
city it passed through rows of grown-ups and children and 
(surely previously rehearsed for many days!), the latter sang 
in French, "The Marseillaise," and, stepping from his coach, 
Lafayette marched between the rows of children, singing the 
anthem of the French revolution. 

Only one break was made during the stay of the Marquis 
in Fredericksburg, if deductions from these old accounts are 
correct. The town cannon must have "busted." And why 
it did, and the legitimate enthusiasm which led to such a 
contretemps, due probably to the exuberance of one who had 
followed the general in the great war for liberation forty years 
before, is gathered from these bills : 

"To John Phillips, for tending to the gun, $2. Old junk, 
37c. Old junk, 27c. Old junk, 23c. 4 kegs of powder, $24., 
two quarts whisky, 50c." 

"To John Phillips, fireing the cannon, $4." 

"To Thomas Wright, for 21 panes glass broken by the 
cannon last Saturday night and on the 19th of November, loc. 
a pane and 8x10 each — $2.10." 

When General Lafayette left Fredericksburg he went by 
stage to Potomac Greek, by boat to Washington, by stage to 
Baltimore, and thence he sailed back to France. With him 
went Messrs. Mercer and Lewis, both sons of men who had 
been Generals in the war for Liberty. 

141 



Old Court Records 

Staid Documents, Writ by Hands That Are Still, Are History For Us. 

For simple beauty of line there is probably no Court 
House in Virginia that equals that at Fredericksburg. While 
to the casual eye its grace is obvious, to artists' and architects' 
it makes the stronger appeal, and it is from those familiar 
with the lines of new and old world buildings that the Court 
House receive highest praise. Inside, in a modern vault, 
are many interesting records of the past. The Court 
House was' completed in 1852, at a cost of about $14,000, 
William M. Boggeth of Baltimore being the contractor, and 
J. B. Benwick, Jr., of Baltimore, the architect, and its com- 
pletion marked the end of a thirty years factional fight in the 
City, which was divided over the issue of building or not 
building a court house. The decision to build was made by 
the Council in spite of a petition against such action, signed 
by one hundred and seventy-two voters. 

The second Court House, a small brick building, stood 
back from the street, on a part of the ground the present struc- 
ture occupies, and had taken the place of the first plank Court 
House. But, as early as 1820, the second structure was com- 
plained of by the Court, which went so far as to "order" the 
Council to provide funds for a new structure, to which the 
Council paid no attention. On June 14, 1849, the Court, com- 
posed of Mayor Semple and Justices William H. White and 
Peter Goolrick, issued an order and appointed a committee, 
as follows : "Thomas B. Barton, John L. Marye, Robert B. 
Semple, Wm. C. Beale and John J. Chew, to examine and 
report to this Court some plan for the enlargement and repairs 
or rebuilding of the Court House of this Corporation." 

But in spite of some excitement following this unusual 
step of the Court, the Council continued its way undisturbed. 

142 



Building a New Courthouse 

The Court, however, called before it "the Justices for this 
Corporation" and at the next session eight Justices — R. B. 
Semple, Robert Dickey, Beverly R. Welford, William C. 
Beale, William H. White, Peter Goolrick, William Warren 
and William Slaughter answered the summons. The report 
of the committee appointed at the previous session of the Court 
was made and the Court finally took this action : 

"That, in obedience to the act of the General Assembly, 
which requires that Courts for the Corporations' within this 
Commonwealth should cause to be erected one good, con- 
venient court house, and it being necessary to build a court 
house for this corporation," etc., the Court "appoints a com- 
mission, consisting of Mayor Semple, Beverly R. Welford, 
William H. White, Thomas B. Barton and John L. Marye to 
contract for a court house." 

But, despite this, and because of the divided sentiment of 
the people and the inaction of the Council, the Court did not 
build a court house, and at a later meeting voted four to four 
on a motion to rescind their previous order. After various 
moves and counter moves, the issue was carried into a regular 
election held in March, 1851, and a Council in favor of a new 
Court House was chosen. The erection of the present struc- 
ture in 1852 ended a thirty years disagreement, which built up 
bitter factions in the town and left animosities, which did not 
subside until the Civil War came on. For many years, until 
the new Fire House was built, the old hand-drawn fire appa- 
ratus was housed in the south wing of the building. 

The bell which is now in the tower of the Court House, 
formerly hung in the second court house, and sounded the call 
to public meetings, as it does today, and the alarms of fire 
and war. It was presented to the town by Silas Wood in 
1828, and has his name and that date on it, as well as the 
name of the maker, "Revere, Boston." 

From the earliest times, debtors who could not pay their 
bills were imprisoned in the jail in Court House square or, 
more properly, slept in the jail and were imprisoned in the 

143 



How Debtors Were Treated 

square ; for they were alloiwed the freedom of the whole square 
and the adjacent streets, but were not allowed to enter any 
store or building on the opposite sides of the streets. Many 
men of prominence, it is said, spent short periods in this 
"Debtors' Prison," awaiting the time when their release could 
be secured under the "Poor Debtors' Law," which gave them 
freedom when by a schedule of their property they proved 
they had no means to meet their obligations. In 1840, the 
Court extended the bounds of the "Debtors' Prison" to include 
four blocks in the center of the city, and the "footways ad- 
joining them"; but to go beyond these bounds was contempt 
of Court. 

No existing records establish what Courts held session 
in Fredericksburg prior to the Revolution, and it is probable 
that successors of Mayor Lawrence Smith were empHDwered 
as Governors and Judges until 1727, after which time the 
Trustees of the town may have chosen magistrates, or the 
colonial Governors may have done this. 

It is established that the first Court in Fredericksburg 
was created by the General Assembly in 1781, when Freder- 
icksburg was incorporated and given a Common Council and 
a Hustings Court. The first session of this Hustings Court 
was held April 15, 1782, with the following Justices present: 
Charles Mortimer, William McWilliams, James Somerville, 
Charles Dick, Samuel Ruddy, and John Julien, "the same 
being Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen of the town." This 
continued the only Court until 1788, when nineteen District 
Courts were established in the State by the General Assembly, 
and one of them was located at Fredericksburg. These courts 
were presided over by two of the ten Judges of the General 
Court at Richmond. Among the many men of prominence 
who appeared before this District Court were James Monroe, 
Edmund Randolph, and Francis Brooke. This District Court 
was abolished in 1809 and a Circuit Court took its place. 
This new court was now presided over by one of the Judges 
of the General Court at Richmond. With some changes these 
courts continue to the present, but are presided over by spe- 

144 



History of the Courts 

cially chosen Circuit Judges. But the Circuit Court is not 
held at Fredericksburg. 

The Hustings Court, meanwhile, was the local court for 
Fredericksburg until 1870, when it became the "Corporation 
Court" over which, instead of three Justices of the Peace, the 
Assembly now provided there be a Judge "who shall be learned 
in law." Judge John M. Herndon was the first Judge of this 
Court, in 1870, and was succeeded by Judge John T. Goolrick, 
1877, Judge Montgomery Slaughter followed him, Judge A. 
Wellington Wallace presided for some years, and Judge 
Embry served until Judge John T. Goolrick was again chosen 
Judge and has continued on the bench for the last 16 years. 

» A more remarkable record is that of the men of the Chew 
family, who for ninety-nine years and eleven days' were the 
Clerks of this Court, succeeding each other by appointment 
and election in direct lineal line. Henry Armistead, first Clerk 
of the Court, died August i, 1787, and on August 6, 1787, 
John Chew, Jr., was appointed to the vacancy. In 1806 his 
son, Robert S. Chew, succeeded; In 1826 the latter's son 
John J. Chew succeeded; In 1867, the latter's son, Robert S. 
Chew succeeded and held office until his death in 1886. Mr. 
J. Willard Adams is now Clerk of the Corporation Court. 

There are many interesting documents in the vaults of the 
Court House, many of them mere scraps, as that which tells 
of an inquest in 1813 over the "Body of a sailor from the 
Frigate 'Constitution,' " who was drowned here in the river, 
and which indicates that the famed old boat was once at 
Fredericksburg Wharf. 

Among the oldest and most interesting documents in the 
archives of the Court House, is a "List of Males Capable of 
Militia Duty — 1785," and of the two hundred and sixty-five 
then listed, (which would indicate a population of about 1,300 
in the city at that time). There are few names now known 
in Fredericksburg, nevertheless, there are some, and of these 
familiar names the following are examples: 

145 



Mary Washington's Will 

"Dr. Mortimer, Dr. Brooke, Dr. French, Dr. Hall, Dr. 
Gillis, Dr. Hand" and "Bradford, Taylor, Yates, Walker, 
Maury, Minor, Herndon, White, Brent, Johnson, Wheeler, 
Gray, Jenkins, Allen, Crutchfield, Ferneyhough, Brown, Chew, 
Weedon, Colbert, Washington, Brooks, Ingram, Middleton, 
Spooner, Payne, Gordon, Young, Thompson, Berry, Slaughter, 
Lewis, Clarke," and many others whose descendants are well 
known in this city and vicinity. 

The will of Mary Washington, written by James Mercer, 
an attorney who was also Chief Justice of the General Court, 
(the highest court of Virginia) and signed by Mary Wash- 
ington, is preserved in the Court House and has been seen by 
hundred of callers. The will was made May 20, 1788, and 
was filed after the death of Mrs. Washington. 

"In the name of God, Amen. I, Mary Washington, of 
Fredericksburg, in the County of Spottsylvania, being in good 
health, but calling to mind the uncertainty of this life and 
willing to dispose of what remains of my earthly estate, do 
make and publish this, my last will, recommending my soul 
into the hands of my Creator, hoping for a remission of all 
my sins through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, 
the Saviour of Mankind. I dispose of all my worldly estate 
as follows : 

Imprimis : I give to my son. General George Washington, 
all my lands on Accokeek Run, in the County of Stafford, and 
also my negro boy, George, to him and his Heirs forever; 
also my best bed, bedstead and Virginia cloth curtains, (the 
same that stands in my best room), my quilted Blue and White 
quilt and my best dressing glass. 

Item : I give and devise to my son, Charles Washington, 
my negro man Tom, to him and his assigns forever. 

Item: I give and devise to my daughter, Betty Lewis, 
my phaeton and my bay horse. 

Item: I give and devise to my daughter-in-law, Hannah 
Washington, my purple cloth cloak lined with shay. 

146 







O 






:> ^ 









^ 



Mary Washington's Will 

Item : I give and bequeath to my grandson, Corbin Wash- 
ington, my negro wench, Old Bet, my riding chair and two 
black horses', to him and his assigns forever. 

Item: I give and bequeath to my grandson, Fielding 
Lewis, my negro man, Frederick, to him and his assigns for- 
ever; also, eight silver table spoons, half of my crockery ware, 
and the blue and white Tea China, with book case, oval table, 
one bedstead, two table cloths, six red leather chairs, half my 
pewter, and one-half my iron kitchen furniture. 

Item: I give and bequeath to my granddaughter, Bett)'^ 
Carter, my negro woman. Little Bet, and her future increase, 
to her and her assigns forever; also my largest looking glass, 
my walnut writing desk with drawers, a square dining table, 
one bed, bedstead, bolster, one pillow, one blanket and pair of 
sheets, white Virginia cloth counterpane, and purple curtains, 
my red and white china, teaspoons and other half of my 
pewter, crockery ware, and the remainder of my iron kitchen 
furniture. 

Item : I give to my grandson, George Washington, my 
next best dressing glass, one bed, bedstead, bolster, one pillow, 
one pair of sheets, one blanket and counterpane. 

Item : I devise all my wearing apparel to be equally 
divided between my granddaughters, Betty Carter, Fanny Ball 
and Milly Washington ; but should my daughter, Betty Lewis, 
fancy any one, two or three articles, she is to have them before 
a division thereof. 

Lastly: I nominate and appoint my said son, General 
George Washington, executor of this, my Will, and as I owe 
few or no debts, I desire my Executor to give no security nor 
to appraise my estate, but desire the same may be allotted to 
my devisees with as little trouble and delay as may be, desiring 
their acceptance thereof as all the token I noiw have to give 
them of my love for them. 

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and 
seal this 20th day of May, 1788. 

Mary Washington. 
Witness: John Ferneyhough. 

147 



Burial in Streets Stopped 

Signed, sealed and published in our presence, and signed 
by us in the presence of the said Mary Washington, and at 
her desire. 

J. Mercer 
Joseph Walker." 

Among the orders of the Court, found on the Order 
Books, are some which are of interest as bearing on old cus- 
toms of the town. One of the first of these was entered March 
I, 1784, when the Court "proceeded to settle the allowances 
to the officers of the Corporation" as follows : "Mr. John 
Minor, Jr., Attorney for the Commonwealth, two thousand 
pounds tobacco ; Mr. Henry Armistead, Clerk, twelve hundred 
pounds tobacco; John Legg, Sergeant, twelve hundred pounds 
tobacco; Henry Armistead, for attending all Courts of inquiry, 
four hundred pounds; sergeant for same, five hundred and 
seventy pounds; Wm, Jenkins, goaler, three hundred and 
sixty-four pounds." 

February 7, 1785, "Robert Brooke" (afterwards Gov- 
ernor of Virginia in 1794-96, and still later Attorney General) 
yu_fwU^.^ and Bushrod Washington, ('Uncle of George Washington and 
later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court) were admitted to 
practice law. 

April 25, 1801, the first "watchman" (policeman) was 
appointed for the town. 

In a peculiar report, made March 27, 1802, the Grand 
Jury took steps to put a stop to "a nuisance, the numerous 
obstructions in the streets', particularly in St. George Street 
lot; burying the dead in George and Princess Anne Streets; 
also the irregular burying in the ground west of and adjoining 
Prince Edward." These graves, the report shows, were on 
George, Princess Anne, and in Hanover Street, west of 
Princess Anne, and on George Street between Main and the 
river. 

After twenty-two years, the Court issued its first author- 
ization for a Minister of the Gospel (none but the Church of 

148 



Court Set Liquor Price 

England ceremony was before recognized) to perform the 
marriage ceremony, December 24, 1804, to "Benj. Essex," 
Methodist. Others followed in this order: Samuel Wilson, 
Presbyterian, September 22, 1806; William James, Baptist, 
June 13, 181 1. 

The undisputed fact that John Forsythe, who was in his 
generation one of America's most famous men, and a sketch 
of whose life is given elsewhere, was born in Fredericksburg, 
is contained in this entry, dated January 12, 1832. 

"The Court orders it to be certified that it was proved to 
their satisfaction, by the evidence of Francis S. Scott, a wit- 
ness sworn in Court, that Major Robert Forsythe of the 
Revolutionary army, had two children, one of whom, Robert, 
died under age and unmarried, and the other, John, is now 
alive, being a Senator in Congress from Georgia." 

Among the Court's first acts after establishment, the 
Hustings Court, on May 20, 1782, thus fixed the prices of cer- 
tain commodities in the "Taverns" : "Good West India Rum, 
one pound per gallon ; bread, ten shillings ; whiskey, six ; strong 
beer, four; good West India rum toddy, ten shillings; brandy 
toddy, seven shillings six pence; rum punch, fifteen shillings; 
brandy punch, twelve ; rum grog, six ; brandy grog, five. Diet : 
one meal, one shilling six pence; lodging, one shilling and 
three pence; 'stablidge' and hay, two shillings; oats and corn, 
nine pence per gallon." 

The prices of intoxicants is hard to explain. Rum is at 
the rate of $5.00 per gallon, but apparently whiskey is only 
$1.25. A later ordinance of prices, made May 10, makes 
various changes. 

"Breakfast, fifty cents; dinner, fifty; supper, fifty; lodg- 
ing, twenty-five; grain, per gallon, twelve and one-half; sta- 
blidge and hay per night, twenty-five ; Madera Wine, per quart, 
one dollar; Champagne, per quart, one dollar and fifty cents; 
other wine, per quart, fifty cents; French brandy, twelve and 
one-half cents per gill; Rum, twelve and one-half cents per 
gill ; Gin, twelve and one-half cents per gill." 

149 



Soffie of the Judges 



A pure judiciary is one of the best assurances of good 
government, and Virginia is proud of her Judges, who on the 
average, have been and are men of learning, and acknowledged 
ability. 

In this book, we can only chronicle briefly the names of 
some who have presided in the Circuit Courts of this circuit. 

First is the name of John Tayloe Lomax, who had occu- 
pied a chair in the law school at the University of Virginia, 
and who had written several books treating on law, before he 
came to preside as judge here. 

Richard Coleman, of the distinguished family of that 
name from Caroline County; 

Eustace Conway, one of the very youngest men elected by 
the people, and who died in a few months after he had 
assumed the duties; 

John Critcher, who soon resigned the judicial office to 
become an officer in the Confederate Army; 

William Stone Barton, who was a splendid Judge, a fear- 
less soldier and a Christian ; 

John E. Mason, who executed all the duties of his high 
office intelligently and conscientiously. 



150 



Echoes of the Past 

"Ghosts 0^ Dead Hours, and Days That Once Were Fair' 



Fredericksburg was, in anti-bellum days, the center of a 
large number of slave holding land proprietors who lived 
within its gates, yet cultivated their farms in the adjacent 
territory, hence the colored population of the town was large; 
and very much to the credit of these colored people as well 
as a testimonial to the manner of their treatment, and to the 
methods of their humane and kind discipline, the colored 
population was law abiding and polite. They were religious 
in their tendencies, and church going in their practices. For 
several years they worshipped in a church of their own situ- 
ated on the banks of the Rappahannock known as Shiloh 
Baptist Church — for in this section they were Baptist in their 
creed. After the war, in consequence of some feuds and fac- 
tions, they divided up into several churches, all of the Baptist 
denomination. Clinging to the name, there is now "Shiloh 
Old Site" — and "Shiloh New Site" and some mild rivalry. 

Among the old time colored brethren were some unique 
characters. We note a few only : Scipio, or as he called him- 
self, Scipio Africanus from Ethiopia, was very popular ; kindly 
and charitable in disposition he was probably the only infidel 
among that race. One afternoon, at a Baptizing which always 
took place in the River, a very fat sister came near being 
drowned. Aftet she was immersed by the preacher, gasping 
and struggling, she came up and Scip becoming excited yelled 
to the colored divine — "Stop there Brother ! Stop I tell you ! 
If you dou.se that gal again some white man goin' to lose a 
valuable nigger by this here foolishness!" Needless to say 
the indignant divine released the sister and turned his wrath 
on Scipio. 

151 



About the Colored People 

Another colored character was Edmund Walker, who 
kept a coffee house. He openly proclaimed he wanted no 
"poor white trash." Over his emporium in big letters flour- 
ished this sign — "walk in gentlemen, sit at your ease, Pay 
for what you call for, and call for what you please." 

Jim Williams was known as a good cook, as well as 
huntsman. His Master, Col. Taliaferro told Jim one day that 
he expected great men for dinner some time soon, and "Jim, 
I want a turkey, a fat turkey fattened in a coop, not shot Jim !" 
When the day came and dinner was served. Col, Taliaferro's 
knife in carving, struck a shot or two. Infuriated, the old 
Colonel yelled at Jim — "Didn't I tell you not to bring me any 
turkey with a shot in it?" Jim who had obtained the turkey 
after dark replied, "Dem shots was 'tended for me not for 
the turkey. The white folks shot at me, but the turkey got 
the shot." 

The loyalty of the colered men and women for their 
old Masters and Mistresses during the war cannot be com- 
mended too highly. Told time and again that a victory for 
the Federal soldiers meant their freedom, many of them re- 
fused to leave their old homes, and remained steadfast to the 
end. While we cannot enumerate many of these, the oppor- 
tunity to chronicle the name of one, still living cannot be 
overlooked. The Rev. Cornelius Lucas, who in the dark and 
dreadful days of war, followed his old owners, the Pollocks, 
is with us yet. He was with them on the march and in camp, 
waited on them, and ministered to them. One of the Chapters 
of the Daughters of the Confederacy in this town, recently 
decorated him with its testimonial, its cross of honor. 

We know of no locality situated so near the Mason and 
Dixon line as is Fredericksburg where the Union Armies 
came with their propaganda of freedom for the slaves, which 
presents more of the love of the former slaves for their former 
Masters', and more obedience to law and order than is the case 
with the colored people of the town of Fredericksburg, for 
with rare exceptions, there has been no flagrant violation 
of the laws. We are of the opinion that this book would 

152 



When Andrew Jackson Came 

not indeed respond to the requirements of endeavoring to 
sketch the town and its life, without embodying within its 
pages what it includes of the colored men and women whose 
lives have been spent within its limits. 

Early in the nineteenth century, on May 7th, 1833, Fred- 
ericksburg was visited by President Andrew Jackson and 
escort, the occasion, one of the most important of that period, 
being the laying of the corner stone of the old Mary Wash- 
ington Monument. People from all over this general section 
gathered to greet the hero of New Orleans, and in addition to 
the detachment of Marines, which was the President's honor 
guard, military organizations from Washington, Alexandria, 
Fauquier County and Fredericksburg, led by Col. John Bank- 
head, chief marshal, took part in the large parade that pre- 
ceded the ceremonies. 

History has recorded for us correctly what took place 
on the occasion. The President spoke as did also other dis- 
tinguished men and, as in those remote days orators were not 
sparing with the time they took, undoubtedly the long suffer- 
ing people stood a verbal fusilage that lasted hours. But 
in the end they were repaid, for the program was followed 
by feasting and drinking and a general merry time, at which 
wines, liquors and barbacued beef were served to 5,000 people, 
under a big tent. 

The main reception was held in the old Wallace house, 
which formerly stood on the site now occupied by the Baker 
and Wallace wholesale drygoods house, and it was the scene 
of an incident that convulsed the dignified gathering, which 
was hard put to control its laughter. It came about as follows. 

While traveling by road from Quantico (which was 
reached by boat from Washington,) to Fredericksburg, the 
presidential party encountered a Major Randolph, of the army, 
who lately had been court martialed and reprimanded on a 
charge that now is unknown. Major Randolph had appealed 
the decision of the court to the President, who much to the 
indignation of the Major, approved the findings. When 

153 



General Lee's Week's Visit 

Major Randolph met the President, he stopped, saluted and 
then questioned him regarding his decision. The President's 
replies were not satisfactory to the indignant major and he 
pulled the nose of the Hero of New Orleans. News of the 
occurrence quickly got about the town. 

That night a certain old gentleman of the most generous 
hospitality and the kindest of hearts but with very poor social 
instincts, was introduced to the President. His mental processes 
are not known, naturally, but probably in a desire to be espe- 
cially gracious and to show that Fredericksburg and its people 
were deeply considerate of the welfare of their President, and 
concerned in all that happened to him, the old gentleman 
grasped the hand of the chief dignitary of the land, bowed very 
low and said, "Mr. President, I am indeed very glad to meet 
you and I sincerely hope. Sir, that Major Randolph did not 
hurt you when he pulled your nose to-day." 

The President flared up momentarily but seeing the inno- 
cence written in the countenance of the old gentleman, and the 
convulsions of those around him, he joined heartily in the 
laughter and assured his questioner that he was quite un- 
harmed. 



In 1869 the Episcopal Council of the State gathered in 
St. George's Church and to this Council as a delegate from 
Grace Church, Lexington, of which he was a vestryman, came 
General, Robert E. Lee the beloved hero of the South. Just 
across the street from St. George's Church was the home of 
Judge William S. Barton and there he was the honored guest. 
Coming so shortly after the close of the war when the people 
were in almost a frenzy of sympathy for him and sorrow for 
their "Lost Cause" he produced an impression that will never 
be forgotten by those who saw him. 

The Barton house was besieged by young and old, 
anxious to shake hands with him. The Bartons gave a large 
reception, and the writer recalls that scene as if it were 
yesterday. 

154 



General Lee's Week's Visit 

General Lee stood with Judge Barton and his stately 
wife; General Barton and his wife, and the peerless beauty, 
Mary Triplett, who was the niece of the Bartons. To describe 
General Lee would be superfluous. The majesty of his pres- 
ence has been referred to. He inspired no awe or fear, 
but a feeling of admiration as if for a superior being. People 
who spoke to him turned away with a look of happiness, as 
if some long felt wish had been gratified. Toward the con- 
clusion of the reception, when only a few intimate friends 
remained, some of the young girls ventured to ask for a kiss, 
which was given in fatherly fashion. The Council lasted a 
week, from Sunday to Sunday and for that time General Lee 
remained at the Bartons. 

The home life of this truly representative Virginia family 
brings back elusive dreams of the charmed days of old when 
a gentle elegance, a dignity, a grace of welcome that was 
unsurpassed in any land, made them ideal as homes and 
supreme in hospitality, and nowhere was this more clearly 
evidenced than in the family of Judge Barton. General Lee 
was serenaded here by Prof. A, B. Bowering's Band, the same 
Band which accompanied the gallant 30th Virginia Regiment 
on its marches, and cheered them in Camp with patriotic airs. 

It was Bowering's Band that, when the body of Stondwall 
Jackson was removed from the Capitol in Richmond to the 
railway station, played the Funeral Dirge. Prof. Bowering 
has led other bands since then, and is at present the conductor 
of an excellent one. 

It was at about this time that Father Ryan wrote one of 
his most beautiful poems, of which this is the last verse: 



"Forth from its scabbard, all in vain, 
Bright flashed the sword of Lee; 
'Tis shrouded now in its sheath again. 
It sleeps the sleep of our noble slain 
Defeated, yet without a stain. 
Proudly and peacefully." 



15s 



Mayors of Fredericksburg 

The following is a chronological list of mayors of Freder- 
icksburg with the number of years served by each : Dr. Charles 
Mortimer, 3 ; William McWilliams, i ; James Somerville, 3 ; 
George Weedon, i ; George French, 8 ; Benjamin Day, 2 ; 
William Harvey, 2 and less than a month of the third year, 
when he died in office ; Fontaine Maury, 3 ; William Taylor, i ; 
David C. Ker, 2 ; William S. Stone, i ; Charles L. Carter, i 
year and six months, resigning when half his first term was 
out; William Smock, six months, serving the unexpired half 
of Charles L. Carter's first term ; Richard Johnston, i ; Joseph 
Walker, i ; John Scott, i ; Garret Minor, 2 ; Robert Mackay, 
2; David Briggs, i. 

Briggs' term ended in March, 1821. Up to this time no 
mayor had served more than i year consecutively, but after 
this date several served for many years following each other. 
Following Briggs was Robert Lewis, who died in office after 
nearly nine years ; Thomas Goodwin, died in office after nearly 
seven years; John H. Wallace, 2; Benjamin Clarke 6; Robert 
Baylor Semple, died in office after nearly nine years; John L. 
Marye, Jr., i ; Peter Goolrick, 3 years and one month, resign- 
ing just after the beginning of his fourth term and almost 
immediately before the Civil War; John S. Cardwell, 2; Wil- 
liam S. Scott, I ; Montgomery Slaughter, the War Mayor, 
who succeeded Peter Goolrick, (when the latter resigned 
because the council had refused to endorse some of his appoint- 
ments), and served until removed by the military authorities 
after a few days more than eight years. He was succeeded 
by Charles E. Mallam, appointed by the military authorities in 
April, 1868, and removed by them in just a little more than a 
year. William E. Nye, who followed, was appointed by the 
military but resigned in less than a year. He was succeeded 
by Lawrence B. Rose, elected by the council and twice later 
by the people, serving altogether 5 years, two months and 
twenty days, dying during his last term ; William Roy Mason, 
resigning after serving twenty-seven days of his first term, to 
which he was elected by the people. Robert Banks Berrey, 2 ; 

156 



Building of the Railroad 

Hugh S. Doggett, 3; Joseph W. Sener, 4; Josiah Hazard, 4; 
Absalom Rowe, 9 years and eleven months, dying in office 
during his last term ; W. Seymore White, i year and not quite 
five months, dying in office; Henry R. Gouldman, seven 
months; Marion G. Willis, 6 years; Thomas P. Wallace, 4; 
H. Lewis Wallace, 4 ; Josiah P. Rowe, a son of Absalom Rowe, 
8 ; J. Gamett King is at present serving. 

So far as can be gathered ex-Mayor J. P. Rowe is 
the only son of a mayor who ever held the same office which 
his father had filled before him. 

The Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad, 
the great Trunk Line between the North and the South, in 
1837 completed its line to Fredericksburg by rail, a stage line 
thence to Potomac Creek, and steamer connection was made 
from here to Washington. In 1842, on the i8th of November, 
the line was completed to Aquia Creek, making it a total of 
75 miles in length. In i860 Peter V. Daniel was elected 
president, and during his administration the road was fear- 
fully damaged by the Civil War. In 1865, the company, after 
much rebuilding, again opened service to Aquia Creek. In 
1872 the line was extended to Quantico, and connecting there 
with the Washington-Quantico road, filled in the missing link 
of railway from the North to the South. 

The railroad has always been financially successful and 
has provided a service of exceptional convenience. It has the 
remarkable record of never having killed a passenger within 
its cars, and but two from any cause whatever. Under the 
Hon. Eppa Hunton it operates now with great effi- 
ciency and over its tracks pass a string of trains during all 
of the twenty-four hours. On all of its trains an employee 
calls attention just before passing the house where Stone- 
wall Jackson died. The house has been purchased and pre- 
served to posterity by the railroad — an act for which it deserves 
the highest commendation, as it does for the monument it gen- 

157 



Jefferson Davis' Speech 

erously built at Hamilton's Crossing, where heavy fighting 
occurred during the battle of Fredericksburg. 

Jefferson Davis, when a member of the Senate ,was' loath 
to leave that body and opposed breaking up of the Union. 
But, when his own State of Mississippi called, he answered. 
He had been educated at West Point and had fought in 
Mexico. When the representatives met at Montgomery, Ala- 
bama, and elected him President of the Confederacy, he ac- 
cepted. When the seat of government was moved to Rich- 
mond, he, of course, came with it. 

Soon after this he paid Fredericksburg a visit and while 
in the town was a g^est of Temple Doswell, Esq., at his home 
on the corner of Princess Anne and Lewis Streets. As soon 
as it was known that he was here a band, accompanied by a 
multitude of citizens and Confederate soldiers, gave him a com- 
plimentary reception, to which he replied,, in a brief address, 
from the porch. The writer remembers very clearly how he 
appeared. He was tall, thin, beardless, slightly bald, dressed 
in black broad cloth that was slightly worn looking. 

Mr. Davis came to review the troops stationed on the 
Potomac at Acquia, as well as some encamped at Fredericks- 
burg. He expressed himself as very much pleased, not only 
with the hospitable reception accorded him, but also, with the 
conditions of the troops and the general management of the 
situation then under General Daniel Ruggles. 

It is an unusual coincidence that during the war between 
the States, Fredericksburg should have had within its gates. 
President Lincoln of the United States and President Jefferson 
Davis of the Confederate States, and that each made a public 
address from places three blocks apart. 

This National Cemetery is located on one of the most 
prominent and imposing hills overlooking the City of Freder- 
icksburg, formerly called Willis Hill- On July 15, 1865, this 
location was selected and the cemetery begun. It has since 
been made beautiful with shrubbery and flowers and terraced, 

158 



The National Cemetery 

and now it is known for its attractive appearance. It is, in 
fact, counted as one of the most beautiful cemeteries in this 
Country. It comprises about twelve acres. Of the soldiers 
gathered from the adjacent battlefields there are of the known 
dead 2,496 and of the unknown 12,798. 

Very many handsome monuments are erected on these 
grounds, among them one by General Butterfield in memory 
of the 5th Corps ; another to General Humphreys by the State 
of Pennsylvania ; and by the same State a monument in mem- 
ory of the 127th Pennsylvania Volunteers. Head stones mark 
the resting place of very many others. 

On each recurring Decoration Day, May 30th, from a 
beautifully constructed forum, services are held in tribute to 
the memory of the brave men who sleep there. At these 
services many who wore the grey and fought on the other side 
unite with the boys who wore the blue, in paying this tribute. 

Near Fredericksburg Governor Spottswood instituted the 
first iron work in America, and an old plate cast in his furnace 
is now in the possession of Mr. Val Dannehl of this city. It 
is probably the oldest piece of cast iron in America. 

Governor Spottswood built the village of Germanna on 
he upper river for German workmen brought over here, and 
it was from that place, the first Courthouse of Spotsylvania 
County, that the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe began their 
journey. The mansion of this famous Virginian stood close 
beside the Germanna road. 

Today, almost on that spot, stands a small white cottage, 
and within it are various relics of the Old Governor and his 
famiily and of the battle of the Wilderness. 

But the strangest thing about the small cottage is that 
within it lives, with his wife, Alexander Spottswood, the lineal 
descendant of the Governor. Mr. Spottswood stands over six 
feet, erect and with the bearing that inevitably proclaims the 
descendants of great men. His daughter recently married Mr. 
E. H. Willis. 

159 



Patti Once Lived Here 

Thus a Spottswood lives today on the tract where the 
great Virginia Governor built his mansion and where he 
founded the famous Spottswood mines and furnace almost 
two hundred years ago. 

An incident brought the great singer Patti to Fredericks- 
burg, to remain for some time. When she was a girl of six- 
teen, just beginning to train for her great career in Grand 
Opera, her brother Carlo Patti expected to institute a school 
of music and was here for that purpose when he was taken 
suddenly ill. She came with her sister Madam Strackosh to 
see her brother. He remained ill for months and his sisters 
were with him during the entire time. They boarded at the 
Old Exchange Hotel on Main Street, now the Hotel Maury, 
and gave more than one concert at what was known then as 
"The Citizens Hall." If there are few here now who remem- 
ber her, there is still among us one woman, a little child at 
the time, whom the singer often held in her arms and caressed. 
The parents of the child were boarding at the Hotel tem- 
porarily and the mother and Adelina became great friends 
and remained so for many years. Madam Strackosh and her 
famous sister said they enjoyed "real life" in our little South- 
ern town. Carlo after regaining his health went farther South, 
joined a Confederate Company, and again as one of the boys 
in gray under the stars and bars, was in Fredericksburg and 
was well known to the writer. He entertained the weary boys 
in camp when the hard days were over, with his beautiful 
songs. 

John Forsythe referred to in the above order was 
born in 1781 in a frame house, now standing at the corner of 
Prince Edward and Fauquier Streets. He graduated from 
the Princeton Academy early in life, moving later with his 
family to Georgia where he studied law, practiced and in 
1808 he was elected Attorney General, and in 181 2 was chosen 
Congressman and served until 18 18. 

In 1819 he was appointed Minister to Spain and while 
acting as Minister, he was instrumental in the ratification of 

160 



Joe Hooker Comes Again 

the treaty with the Country for the cession of Florida to the 
United States. 

In 1827 he was elected Governor of Georgia and in 1829 
became a member of the Senate and was in that body when 
he accepted the office of Secretary of State, which position 
he occupied to the end of Van Buren's administration. He 
died in the City of Washington, October 21, 1841, and is 
buried in the Congressional Cemetery. 

Fighting "Joe" Hooker, as his troops called him and as 
he was, came here shortly after the war to gather evidence to 
refute the charges his enemies at the North were disseminating 
against him in a campaign of scandal. He attempted while 
here, and he was here for a long period, to show that his 
failure was not entirely his own fault, and the evidence which 
he procured , together with his own statements proved suffici- 
ently that Gen. Hooker's plan for the campaign at Chancel- 
lorsville far surpassed any conception of any other Northern 
general. They left the inference also (Lincoln had warned 
him in a letter that his insubordination to Burnside and other 
superior officers would one day result in his inferiors failing 
to co-operate with him), that Sedgwick had not put his full 
heart into the battle, for, important factor in the movement 
that he was, he started one day late and allowed 4,000 men at 
Salem Church tO' hold back the advance of his 30,000 men. 
Had he won this fight, he could have been at Chancellorsville 
and turned the tide of battle long before Jackson's genius had 
ruined Hooker's army. 

The subject of this sketch was the son of Captain and 
Mrs. Joseph W. Sener. His father was several times Mayor 
of this city. Judge Sener graduated when quite a young 
man, with the degree of Bachelor of Law, from the Uni- 
versity of Virginia, and was a very successful practitioner 
for many years in the courts of this State. He was elected 
to represent the first Virginia district in the Congress of the 

161 



Abraham Lincoln's Address 

United States several years after the civil war. After his 
retirement from Congress he was appointed by President 
Hayes Chief Justice of the then Territory of Wyoming. After 
performing the duties of this office very acceptably for sev- 
eral years he returned to Virginia, and again took up the 
practice of his profession. Much of his time was spent in 
Washington where he died. He was buried in Fredericksburg 
with Masonic honors, being a very active member of Lodge 
No. 4, A. F. and A. M. of this city. 



When the Federal army first held Fredericksburg, during 
the winter of 1861, President Lincoln came to stay at Chatham 
and hold a grand review of the army of the Potomac. He 
was accompanied by Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State, and 
Edward Staunton, Secretary of War. On the plateau behind 
Chatham there was held a great artillery review. On the fol- 
lowing day the President, accompanied by some of his cabinet 
officers and the staff officers of the army, crossed the river on 
the loKver pontoon bridge. They rode immediately to the 
provost marshal's headquarters in the building on the corner 
of Princess Anne and George Streets, which the National Bank 
now occupies. After taking lunch with General Patrick and 
in response to the calls of some troops present. President 
Lincoln from the front steps made a short but splendid 
address. The writer of this, sat on the steps of the St. George's* 
Church, on the opposite side of the street and heard President 
Lincoln's speech. 

On the Bowling Green road, a mile from town, a stone 
marked "Stuart-Pelham" shows about where those two bril- 
liant young men met when they advanced their guns against 
the Northern host. In the woods, back of Fredericksburg, a 
stone marks General Lee's winter headquarters — where stood 
his tents. The spot where Cobb fell is marked, and there is a 
marker where the pontoon landed near the foot of Hawk 
street. The New Jersey monuments are near Salem Church, 

162 



Other Distinguished Visitors 

General Hays monument (where he was killed) near Plank 
road on the Brock road. "Lee to the Rear" one mile west of 
Brock on Plank road, Sedgwick's monument near Spotsylvania 
Court House. Where Jackson fell, monument two miles west 
of Chancellorsville on Plank road. 

In the midst of the war England sent Lord Wolesley, 
who became the Commander-in-Chief of the English Army, 
to serve a short time as Military Observer iwith the army of 
General Lee. He was with General Lee about Fredericksburg 
and in his commentaries on him said, "There was about Gen- 
eral Lee an air of fine nobility, which I have never encountered 
in any other man I have met." General Wolesley attended a 
dance here in the house then called the Alsop house, on 
Princess Anne Street, now occupied by the Shepherds. 

The Prince of Wales, who afterwards became King 
Edward the Seventh, visited Fredericksburg in 1859. The 
Prince was accompanied by the Duke of New Castle, Lord 
Lyons and others of the Royal family. They were welcomed 
here in an address by the late Maj. Elliott M. Braxton. The 
local band played "God save the Queen" and flowers and 
bouquets were presented to the Prince. 

Among those who came in time of peace we record the 
name of one whose fame is known to all English readers. 
Thackeray, the great English novelist, was here, and on taking 
leave said, "To come to Virginia and mingle with its 
people, to learn how they live and see their home life, is to 
have England pictured to you again." 

Again the father left, and we next hear of the little girl 
as Madam Romero, wife of the once Secretary of State of 
Mexico and then Ambassador to the United States from 
Mexico. During the stay of Ambassador Romero at Wash- 
ington, this girl of Virginia lineage became the leader of the 
social life of the Capitol of our Nation, and one of the most 
popular women ever known there. 

163 



Other Distinguished Visitors 

It was perfectly natural that Chester A. Arthur should 
be often a visitor to Fredericksburg for he married Miss Ellen 
Lewis Herndon, of this city, a daughter of Captain W. L. 
Herndon, whose distinguished life has been touched upon. 
The home in which President Arthur stopped on his visit is 
on Main Street, now occupied by Mrs. R. B. Buffington. 

Certainly the greatest orator who ever visited Fredericks- 
burg was Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, distinguished 
among literary men of his day. He came to this city to speak 
and was entertained in several homes here. He afterwards 
spoke all over the Nation in an effort to aid the Mount 
Vernon Association to purchase Washington's home. 

An English officer Colonel Henderson, whose life of 
"Stonewall Jackson" is from a literary and military stand- 
point the best work of its' nature in the world, came here and 
stayed for a long period securing data for his book. He lived 
during his time here at the Old Eagle Hotel, now the Hotel 
Maury. 

Among our old time merchants was Mr. William Allen. 
His son married and lived in many foreign lands. The son's 
wife died and he returned to visit his father bringing his 
beautiful little daughter, a child of ten or eleven years. The 
writer recalls her at that time, with her lovely golden curls. 

Another nobleman who came here drawn by the quaint- 
ness of the old American town and his desire to see the home 
of Washington, was the Count De Paris, of the French Royal 
Family. 

The Irish poet, Thomas Moore, was here once and de- 
clared he would not leave America until he had been a guest 
in an old Virginia home. 



164 



Where Beauty Blends 

Old Gardens, at Old Mansions, Where B loom Floivers from Long Ago 

Btids and blossoms everywhere! and honey-bees, butter- 
flies and birds! It is Spring now in the lush meadows and 
sweeping hills about Fredericksburg. Flowers, leaves, shrubs 
and vines have burst forth once more with joy and life. The 
wild tangle of beauty and fragrance is everywhere perceptible ; 
hedges of honeysuckle, whose hidden foundation is the crumb- 
ling old stone wall, trellises heavy with old-time roses, 
arbors redolent with sweet grapevine, sturdy oaks and maples, 
.whose branches shelter the clinging tendrils and the purple 
wistaria blossoms, borders, gay with old-time favorites, helio- 
trope, portulaca, petunias, verbenas and hollyhocks, and the 
loved English ivy, with a welcome right of way wherever its 
fancy leads. 

The characteristic which is conceded to be the chief charm 
of Fredericksburg is its historic association and its picturesque 
past. This feature alone does not appeal to all who agree 
that the old town is charming, but when this is combined with 
romantic and interesting tales of the gentry of years agone 
who have won immortality not only in this locality, but in 
this world, the charm is undeniably irresistible to all. Freder- 
icksburg has many beauty spots which combine these condi- 
tions — spots which are of increasing pride to residents and 
visitors. 

Some of the gardens here are old, very old, antedating 
by many years the celebrated formal gardens at Mt. Vernon, 
but few preserve so well their pristine form Though the 
box-bordered parterres have largely disappeared, the old-time 
favorites are here still, the same loved shrubbery "just grown 
tall," descended from those set out originally by those of 

165 



Mary Washington's Home 

generations gone. Mazie V. Caruthers has, in a few words, 
unknowingly delineated some of the garden spots here : 

"Long, brick-paved paths, beside which row on row. 
Madonna lilies in their sweetness grow — 
Planted by hands to dust turned long ago; 

Odors of fern and moss and pine are there — 

Wild loveliness of roses everywhere 

With pinks and mignonette their fragrance share; 

Around the dial, stained by sun and showers 
(Whose slender finger marks the passing hours), 
Stand purple iris, proudest of the flowers ;" 

At the corner of Charles and Lewis Streets stands the 
pretty little garden spot, which, since the year 1775 has been 
associated with Mary Washington. The tall and vigorous, 
pungent and aromatic box-wood trees, planted by her own 
hand, seem typical today of the splendid old lady. A small 
section of the pathway bordered by the same old shrub, which 
led to "Betty's" home at Kenmore, is still here And here 
is also the sweet-scented lavender, and the roses, and near the 
high board fence on the north, is the sun dial, that still and 
silent informant of the passing hours. Washington, Mason, 
JefYerson, Marshall, the Lees — a score of the great have trod 
these shaded walks. 

Not far away are two frame structures. The style of 
each bears the unmistakable mark of age, though the date of 
construction is undetermined. Both are still private resi- 
dences, with attractive grounds'. From the continuity of the 
terraces, it is supposed that in other days only one spacious 
and beautiful terraced lawn Iwas here. It is still beautiful 
with its carefully kept grassy sward, from which at irregular 
intervals, spring the majestic Norway maples, the black wal- 
nuts, the apple trees, and lilacs, the flowering almond, and 
other climbing and flowering shrubs, thick with picturesque 
bird homes, tenanted year after year by possibly the same 
line of robin, wren and oriole. In this magnetic atmosphere was 
born in 1781, the future governor of Georgia, John Forsythe. 

166 




jT ^* "Ir- -k- iS'-- 



Old Main Street Homes 

Can it be that some subtle and indefinable influence lurked in 
these magic surroundings, and left an ineffaceable impress for 
good upon the boy ? 

A delightful old colonial home is the brick structure on 
the east side of lower Main Street. It was built in 1764, and 
its present attractive appearance attests the quality of material 
in its construction, and also the discerning care with which 
the old home has ever been maintained. In Revolutionary 
times' it was the residence of Dr. Charles Mortimer, the loved 
physician of Mary Washington. From the east window can 
be seen the graceful curves of the river, and the Stafford hills 
and dales still form a pretty picture in their verdant beauty 
and symmetry. Within the solid ivy covered brick wall en- 
circling the premises two of the most magnificent trees of this 
section are noted, a Norway fir and a southern magnolia 
which, with other ornamental trees and shrubbery, and a 
charming rose garden, are such splendidly beautiful color 
schemes that one is constrained to linger in the presence of 
their beauty and age. 

Across the street stands another solid brick residence, 
which, though of a later period in history, is equally beautiful. 
It is the one-time home of Matthew Fontaine Maury, one of 
America's greatest men. Its architecture, its interior decora- 
tion, its moss-covered, serpentine, brick walk leading to the old 
kitchen, and the fascinating flower garden, still radiant with 
old-time favorites, attest the age of this old home. Nowhere 
does the trumpet vine attain such luxuriant and graceful 
growth, and many other varieties of flowering shrubs and 
vines linger in the sun or throw their fragrance out on silent 
nights. 

Two other landmarks in the list of charming homes built 
in bygone days — the latter part of the i8th century — each 
with enchanting grounds, are located one on Hanover, and one 
on upper Main Street. These are the old homes of Dr. James 
Carmichael, and Dr. Robert Welford. Lineal descendants 



*Betty Lewis — Mary Washington's daughter. 

167 



Federal, and Hazel, Hill 

occupy both of these premises today, and with the same loving 
care the bewildering- tangles of beauty in leaf, bud, and blos- 
som, which characterize these alluring old garden spots, with 
their accompanying moss-grown brick walks, is continued. 
The Rappahannock river laves the east slope of the Welford 
garden. The picturesque windings of this river, and its 
wooded shores, together with glimpses of the ancient and in- 
teresting little village of Falmouth with "the decent Church 
that tops the neighboring hill," form a pleasing panorama. 
At the old Carmichael home, oak, walnut, apple, and mimosa 
trees, with a pretty arrangement of japonica, crepe myrtle, 
dogwood, lilac, English ivy, and other climbing and flowering 
shrubs, combine to make a setting of alluring beauty. 

Nearby, and still on Hanover Street, is the old colonial 
residence known now as Federal Hill, the one time home of the 
distinguished attorney, Thomas Reade Rootes. Its white 
enamelled wainscoting, panelling, and other interior decora- 
tions; its colonial doorways, dormer windows, and spacious 
grounds where old-time favorites, both radiant and redolent 
are enclosed within its boxwood hedges and honeysuckle glen, 
all bear witness to a carefully preserved and graceful old age. 
Here too is the sun dial, its pedestal half concealed by lux- 
uriant tangles. 

Beautiful Hazel Hill, with its spreading grounds, the old- 
time residence of General John Minor; and the unusually 
attractive home on Princess Anne Street, the pre-revolution 
home of Charles Dick, supposed with every proof of accuracy 
to be the oldest house in town ; Kenmore, with its storied 
frescoes, always associated with Betty Washington, sister of 
George, where graceful wood carving was done by Hessian 
prisoners, is magnificently beautiful ; "the Sentry Box," on 
lower Main Street, the old home of General Hugh Mercer, 
though altered and modernized,, has still the same attractive 
grounds, and because it was here that the country doctor, 
who was to be "General" Hugh Mercer and the tavern keeper 
who was to be "General" George Weedon gained the hearts 

i68 



Beautiful Old "Chatham' 

and hands of pretty Isabella and Catherine Gordon, one infers 
that this was once the trysting place for many a gallant cava- 
lier. All these historic spots deserve front rank in the realm 
of beautiful and interesting old age. 

Among the pleasant places worthy of consideration, from 
an historic, and artistic viewpoint, none is more interesting 
than old Chatham, on Stafford Heights, directly acros the 
Rappahannock from Fredericksburg. Situated on an eminence 
commanding an extended view up and down the picturesque 
river, and with glimpses of the church spires, and quaint roof 
tops of the old town, gleaming through the splendid shade 
trees dotting the grounds, it has stood for almost 200 years, a 
typical colonial Manor house, with characteristically beautiful 
proportions, an example of English material and English 
workmanship. 

It was built in the year 1728 by that sterling patriot, 
William Fitzhugh. "Fitzhugh of Chatham," as he was known, 
was the descendant of the old Norman of the same name, 
progenitor of all of the race of Fitzhugh in Virginia. He 
was the intimate friend and classmate of William Pitt, Earl of 
Chatham, and the plans for the mansion on his large Virginia 
estate, which he named for the earl, are said, with every proof 
of accuracy, to have been drawn by Sir Christopher Wrenn. 

Writers of long ago tell of the beautiful box-bordered 
garden at Chatham, and of the wonderful terraces, built by 
numberless slaves, "stepping down to the river like a giant's 
stairway." These latter still exist in their beauty, and form 
onq of the chief attractions of the place, which has ever been 
famous, and whose most recent owner was the brilliant 
journalist, Mark Sullivan, and Mrs. Sullivan, who made their 
home there until recently. 

William Fitzhugh, Esq., married Ann Boiling Randolph, 
and their daughter Mary, who married George Washington 
Parke Custis, of Arlington, was the mother of Mary Custis, 
the wife of General Robert E. Lee. A conversation between 
General Lee and Major J. Horace Lacy, ( who with his family 

169 



General Lee Spares Chatham 

owned and occupied Chatham until the War Between the 
States) is illustrative of the devotion of both of these men 
for the old colonial homestead. 

On the day before the battle of Fredericksburg, Major 
Lacy was at the headquarters battery of General Lee. By 
the aid of field glasses he saw across the river the white 
porches of his home filled with Federal officers, and simul- 
taneously there was wafted on the breeze the strains of 
"Yankee Doodle" and "Hail Columbia." He requested Gen- 
eral Lee to authorize the fire of the heavy guns, which would 
have laid Chatham in the dust. With a sad smile. General Lee 
refused to do so, and taking his seat on the trunk of an old 
tree, he said, "Major, I never permit the unnecessary effusion 
of blood. War is terrible enough at best to a Christian man ; 
I hope yet to see you and your dear family happy in your 
old home. Do you know I love Chatham better than any place 
in the world except Arlington ! I courted and won my dear 
wife under the shade of those trees." 

Space does not permit a recital of the accomplishments 
of those who followed Mr. Fitzhugh, of Major Churchill 
Jones, of William Jones, his brother, or of Judge John Coalter. 

The Lacys' returned to Chatham after the war and occu- 
pied it until 1872. 

The attractive interior with its hand-carved panels and 
corners is well worthy of detailed description, particularly the 
west bedchamber, with its alluring old fireplace and its high 
mantel, and is said to have been the room occupied by George 
and Martha Washington, who spent a day or two here during 
their honeymoon. Not alone have distinguished men of the 
Revolution reposed in this room, but John Randolph of Roa- 
noke was also here, and later General Lee, and still later Presi- 
dent Lincoln when he came to review the Union Army. Clara 
Barton, to whom suffering humanity dwes such a debt of grati- 
tude, was also here, a day or so previous to the battle of Fred- 
ericksburg, and Washington Irving and other notable men 
visited Major Lacy at the old mansion after the war. 

170 



The Fall Hill Estate 



The interesting and historic old estate, Fall Hill, which 
is now the attractive home of Mr. and Mrs. Fred H. Robinson, 
commands a view surpassing almost any near Fredericksburg. 
The house, built in 1738, is of the Georgian type of architec- 
ture, and its white panelling, its mantel pieces, and other deco- 
rations bear the impress of the care and taste with which the 
solid old brick structure was planned. In close proximity to 
the Falls Plantation, and the Falls of the Rappahannock river, 
this homestead well sustains its reputation as having had an 
artistic and romantic past, which is inseparably intertwined 
with the present. , 

Situated on a high eminence in Spotsylvania County, 
about two miles from Fredericksburg, it commands an entranc- 
ing view, for miles, of the glistening waters of the river, and 
the hills and dales of the Rappahannock Valley, with its smil- 
ing cornfields, and its cheerful apple orchards, and of the 
white pillared porches of Snowden, the charming seat ad- 
jacent. 

It is a wonderful panorama. At the Falls are numberless 
moss-covered, age-old rocks, over which the waters flash and 
sparkle in the sunlight, fresh, soft, green, masses of grassy 
sward are here, dotted with the stately poplar, sycamore, and 
cedar trees; over there the gnarled old oak spreads its hoary 
branches, and honey locusts and elms are near, and climbing 
honeysuckle everywhere. Under the cedar tree, hollowed out 
of the flinty bosom of the big boulder, is Francis Thornton's 
punch-bowl, with "1720" and "F. T." engraved on the circle. 
All of this is close to the great house at Snowden. 

Though not so old, the home of Mr. and Mrs. Frank C. 
Baldwin at "SnoKvden," has long passed the century mark, 
and the substantial brick structure, with its massive white 
pillared portico, its wealth of English ivy, wistaria, and other 
shrubs, its magnificent shade trees, planted irregularly on the 
extensive lawn, its flower garden on the west, in which peonies, 
hollyhocks, crepe myrtle, and other gay perennials vie with 
each other in glowing color and beauty, all unite to form a 
lovely spot. Nor can one forget that here General Lee and 

171 



'Brompton" and ''MannsHeld Hall" 

his staff, and citizens of Fredericksburg, sat in the old parlor 
twice before they decided that though the Federals carried 
out their threat to devastate Fredericksburg, they would not 
submit to an unjust demand, and for the only time in the war 
save at Appomatox and where Jackson died, tears gleamed in 
General Lee's eyes as he stepped in boots and gauntlets from 
"Snowden's" front porch to mount Traveler on the driveway. 
The old Marye home, Brompton, on far-famed Marye's 
Heights, is today a handsome and imposing brick structure, 
with its (white columned portico, and its impressive and entic- 
ing doorway, so suggestive of good cheer and hospitality. 
Each of these spots will appeal to all who see them, and each 
will bring back from the rich past a memory of its own 

Mannsfield Hall, a beautiful home below Fredericksburg, 
owned by Capt. R. Conroy Vance is part of the original grant 
by the Virginia Company to Major Thomas Lawrence Smith 
in 1 67 1, his duty under the grant being to keep at the mouth of 
the Massaponax a troop of 150 sharpshooters and to erect a 
fort; as protection against Indians. For this he was granted 
land two miles north and two miles south of the Massaponax. 

The estate was known as Smithfield and the original 
house was of stone and two dwellings still standing are now 
being used. The present house built in 1805 was added to 
in 1906, and Smithfield was joined to Mannsfield, one of the 
Page family estates. Mann Page in 1749 built the beautiful 
old mansion of stone as a replica of the home of his second 
wife Judith Tayloe, of Mount Airy, in Richmond County. This 
house was burned at the close of the Civil War by accident, by 
the North Carolina soldiers returning home. 

The Mannsfield Hall estate of today practically marks 
the right and left of the contending armies during the battle 
of Fredericksburg, being bounded on the south by the old Mine 
Road to Hamilton's Crossing which is on the property. It 
was at Mannsfield that the great Virginia jurist, Judge Brooke 
was born, the property being owned by that family until sold 
in 1805 to the Pratts. 

172 




o 

m 

Oi 
H 

W 

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£^ 



Church and School 

Hoiv They Greio in the Neiu World; Pathways to the Light. 

In the spring of 1877, during the rectorate of Reverend 
E. C. Murdaugh at St. George's Church, questions arose as 
to certain forms of the Episcopal ritual. Some of the mem- 
bers of the congregation approving Dr. Murdaugh's views, 
believed them to be in perfect accord with the doctrines' of the 
church, but others felt that the introduction of these debated 
minor forms was an innovation and tended towards a High 
Church ritual. These discussions were followed by the resig- 
nation of Dr. Murdaugh, and his followers assembled in old 
Citizen's Hall on the 7th day of August, 1877, and steps were 
there taken to organize Trinity Church. 

Reverend Dr. Murdaugh was promptly called to the rec- 
torship of the new church, and Reverend Robert J. McBryde 
was called from the chaplaincy of the University of Virginia, 
to fill the vacancy at St. George's. With the kindly good fel- 
lowship, the tact, and the piety characteristic of his Scotch 
ancestry, "he lived in accord with men of all persuasions" 
both in the Mother Church and the youthful Trinity. 

This congregation first worshiped in the unoc- 
cupied Methodist Church on Hanover Street, but on 
Christmas Day, 1881, they assembled in their own attractive 
edifice, which had just been completed on the corner of Han- 
over and Prince Edward Streets. Through the efforts' of the 
Reverend J. Green Shackelford, (who succeeded Dr. Mur- 
daugh,) and the congregation, the debt was finally paid, and 
on February 12, 1890, the church was consecrated by Rt. 
Reverend Francis M. Whittle. 

One of the prominent characteristics of this congregation 
has ever been the energy and perseverance with which they 
grapple discouraging problems, and the unfailing and stubborn 

173 



The First Baptist Church 

optimism of its women, out of which is born that success 
which almost invariably crowns their oftentimes unpromising 
efforts. Reverend John F. W. Feild, the present rector, is a 
young man of unusual attainments, and under his able leader- 
ship the church is a vigorous organization. A handsome 
parish house has been built. 

The Baptist Church 

Very little credence has been put in the old superstition 
that an inauspicious beginning implies the promise of a good 
ending, but the Baptist Church here is a conspicuous example 
of the truth of the old saying. 

In 1768 three Baptist zealots were imprisoned here on 
two charges : *'for preaching the gospel contrary to law," and, 
to use the words of the attorney bringing the secondl charge, 
"May it please your worships, these men cannot meet a man 
upon the road, but they must ram a text of scripture down 
his throat." But this intrepid trio continued to preach their 
doctrine, and to sing their hymns from the grated doors and 
windows of their prison cells, and each day drew crowds of 
awed and interested listeners. 

To the Rev. Andrew Broaddus, who organized the 
Church here in 1804, to Reverend Thomas S. Dunaway, whose 
pastorate covered a period of thirty-two years, to Reverend 
Emerson L. Swift, the present efficient pastor, and many other 
able and faithful men, is the church indebted for the largest 
membership in church and Sunday School in the city, the 
communion roll numbering twelve hundred and eighty-nine 
members, and eight hundred and twenty-eight officers, teach- 
ers, and pupils of the Sunday School. 

The present large and splendidly equipped building on 
the corner of Princess Anne and Amelia Streets was erected 
in 1854, under the pastorate of Reverend William F. Broad- 
dus, and has had frequent additions as the increasing activi- 
ties and congregations demanded. Dr. Broaddus conducted 
a successful school for young women in the basement of his 
church for several years preceding the War between the States. 

174 



The Presbyterian Church 

The Presbyterian Church 

To the Presbyterians belongs the distinction of having 
the oldest house of worship in the town. The present brick 
edifice on George Street was erected in 1833, the ground 
having been donated by Mrs. Robert Patton, the daughter of 
General Hugh Mercer. At the time of the coming of Reverend 
Samuel B. Wilson, as a domestic missionary in 1806, there 
were two Presbyterians in the town — surely an unpromising 
outlook. 

This was about the time of the critical period in the life 
of the Episcopal Church in Virginia. For various reasons 
many of St. George's congregation had become dissatisfied. 
This fact strengthened by the forceful intellectuality, and the 
magnetic sympathy of Dr. Wilson, brought about the subse- 
quent rapid growth of Presbyterianism, and proved that the 
psychological moment had arrived for its development here. 
In 1 8 10 their first house of worship was built on the corner 
of Amelia and Charles Streets. 

Adjacent to the present church on Princess Ann Street 
is the beautiful chapel, built of Spotsylvania granite, through 
the donation of the late Mr. Seth B. French of New York, in 
memory of a much loved daughter. 

Dr. Wilson resigned his pastorate in 1841, and among 
the names of his efficient successors are Rev. A. A. Hodge, 
D. D., Rev. Thomas Walker Gilmer, Rev. James Power 
Smith, and the present much loved pastor, Rev. Robert C. 
Gilmore. 

Dr. Wilson organized the female school which was taught 
for years by him at his residence on Charles and Lewis Streets, 
the former home of Mary Ball Washington. One of his 
teachers, Miss Mary Ralls, continued this school with great 
success, and admitted boys. How interesting would be the 
register of this old school, if it were available today! The 
older residents of the town remember well, and with pleasure, 
some of the men who were educated, there, and won distinc- 
tion in their chosen fields. Among others are Judge William 

175 



The Methodist Church 

S. Barton, John A. Elder, Judge Peter Gray, of Texas, Dr. 
Howard Barton, of Lexington, Dr. Robert Welford, Lieuten- 
ant-Governor John L. Marye, Byrd Stevenson, attorney, and 
the Virginian historian, Robert R. Howison, LL. D. 

Dr. Francis A. March, the renowned philologist, and for 
years' president of Lafayette College, taught school here for 
several years, assisting Reverend George W. McPhail, the 
Presbyterian minister who succeeded Dr. Wilson. Dr. March 
married Miss Mildred Conway, one of his pupils, and General 
Peyton Conway March, so well known in military circles, is a 
son of his, and is claimed by Fredericksburg, though he was 
not born here. 

The Methodist Church 

Shortly after the Revolution, the Methodists began to 
hold services here. It is thought that for some years they had 
theiri meetings at private residences, as there is no record of 
a house of worship until 1822, when a church was erected on 
George Street, in the rear of where Hurkamp Park now is. 
Reverend "Father" Kobler began his ministry here in 1789, 
and continued for more than half a century. He died in 1843, 
and his ashes, with those of his wife, repose today beneath the 
pulpit of the present church. As a result of his godliness and 
assiduity, combined with the fervor and zeal characteristic of 
that communion, the Methodists, under the leadership of faith- 
ful men, have enjoyed a successive series of prosperous years, 
materially and spiritually, culminating today in a handsome, 
modern brick edifice on Hanover Street, well equipped for 
its many activities', and a large membership both in Church 
and Sunday School. Reverend H. L. Hout, the present pastor, 
is a conscientious, capable, and intelligent leader. 

Roman Catholic 

Until a sermon of unusual ability and power was deliv- 
ered here in 1856, by Bishop McGill, of the Roman Catholic 
faith, that denomination had no organization of any kind. 
This event, together with the energy and enthusiasm of the 

176 



Catholic and Camphellite 

small band of disciples of that faith, was .the impetus which 
forwarded the establishment of the church here in 1859. The 
visits of Bishop Gibbons — the late Cardinal — and Bishop 
Keene greatly strengthened the prospects of the church, and 
though its membership roll is not a long one, it embraces' 
today some of our solid and successful citizens. They have 
erected a neat brick church, and comfortable parsonage adja- 
cent on Princess Anne Street. The priests who have officiated 
have been men deserving the high esteem of the community, 
and well able to carry on ; the genial Father Thomas B. Martin 
is the present priest in charge. 

The Campbellite Church 

An inconspicuous red brick building on Main Street which 
has the undeniable stamp of age, though decorated with a new 
and modern front, is the Christian, or Campbellite Church, 
built in 1834. This was only two years after Alexander 
Campbell, the eloquent founder of the sect, came here to ex- 
pound his creed, and to organize his church. Its little band 
of workers has passed through many stages of discourage- 
ment, but with fortitude and energy they have again and again 
revivified the spark of life, which at times seemed to burn so 
low. The building was used, during the War between the 
States', as a hospital. Under the leadership of Reverend Lan- 
don Cutler, Reverend Cephas Shelburne, Reverend Samuel H. 
Forrer, and others, with the labors of the present pastor, 
Reverend Daniel E. Motley, the membership has of late been 
greatly increased. The Bible used by Alexander Campbell on 
some of his visits here, is a highly esteemed relic. 

Some Schools of Fredericksburg 

The Public School system was established here as early 
as 1870. At first the schools were not well patronized, owing 
in part to the unusual and well-merited success of the private 
schools, and old-time prejudice against new methods, then 
termed "socialistic." Their popularity increased with their 
efficiency, prejudice was entirely eliminated, and to-day we 

177 



The State Normal School 

have a splendid brick building on Main and Lewis Streets, 
which houses the elementary grades, well-equipped and with 
a commodious auditorium. 

The handsome high school building on Liberty street has 
been completed within the past year. It cost 125,000 and is a 
credit to the town. The chief problem here is the lack of room 
to accommodate the unexpectedly increasing number of lads 
and lasses who present themselves on the opening September 
morn. More than several times have the efficient and pains- 
taking principal and teachers congratulated themselves on 
acquiring adequate conditions for placing the pupils, when in 
an incredibly short time, "congestion," and "half-day ses- 
sions," are again topics in school circles. 

The State Normal 

The crowning glory of Fredericksburg in the educational 
line and probably the most far-reaching in its benefits and 
results is the State Normal School, established here by Act of 
the Virginia legislature in 1908, State Senator C. O'Conner 
Goolrick being most active in securing its location here. The 
massive buildings crown the apex of one of the most pic- 
turesque slopes on the left of the far-famed Marye's Heights. 
An institution of this caliber, in order to radiate the best in 
every line of its many activities, must be apart from the busi- 
ness, social, and commercial life of the community, and yet 
near enough to benefit from the many obvious advantages its 
proximity to such a center affords. Ahe Normal School fully 
meets this condition. The drive ot about a mile from the 
center of the town is an interesting one, and, when the summit 
of the hill is reached, the driveway circles around the imposing 
brick structures ; the Administration Building, Frances Willard 
Hall, Virginia Hall, Monroe Hall, and others. To the east, 
in all its historic pride lies the ancient city. To the west, 
beyond the carefully kept, and attractive campus, and over 
the Athletic Field, nothing is visible but fields and forests and 
rolling hills, — ^nature's handiwork, — and, as the eye sweeps 

178 




Near Bloody Anolk 

Mointuu'ut ill Ihc Spot IVhcrc General Sedgwiek, of Conueclicut, Was 
Killed by a Confederate Sharpsliooler 



Schools of Old Times 

the horizon, it is arrested by more hills and dales of that 
region of our state named in honor of that daring and pic- 
turesque character, "The Knight of the Golden Horseshoe." 
Under President A. B. Chandler, Jr., and a faculty of 
teachers chosen to provide that type of instruction calculated 
to prepare young women for successful vocations, the school 
is a success. 

Schools of Old 

If justice were done to each of the excellent schools of 
varying characteristics, in the old days of Fredericksburg, 
many times the space allotted to this subject would be in- 
fringed upon. But at the risk of this infringement, the names 
of some of the local educators of other days must be included. 
Mr. Thomas H. Hanson was sometime Master of the Fred- 
ericksburg Academy, that old school which is said to have 
begun its existence on Gunnery Green, which in its early days 
disseminated the seeds of learning to many youths, who after- 
wards became distinguished statesman. Messrs. Powell and 
Morrison were principals of a girl's school in old Citizens 
Hall; Mr. John Goolrick and son George educated some of 
our most influential citizens of the past generation; Judge 
Richard H. Coleman taught a school for boys at Kenmore, 
and also at Hazel Hill ; Mrs. John Peyton Little conducted a 
popular school for girls at her residence, the old Union House 
on Main Street; Colonel W. Winston Fontaine had a large 
school for girls, and at a later period Miss Frank Chinn, Miss 
Tillie Slaughter, and others, and still later Miss Willie 
Schooler (Mrs. Frank Page) conducted elementary schools, 
which by reason of their efficiency gained great popularity. 
The school of the late Charles Wisner was largely attended by 
both sexes. 

Fredericksburg College 

The interesting building (now the home of Mr. W. E. 
Lang, Smithsonia, has almost since its construction been 
closely associated with the religious or educational life of the 

179 



Colored Institutions 

community. In it for years was conducted successfully, under 
various teachers, a school for young ladies, always under Pres- 
byterian management. For years it housed some of the 
departments of the Presbyterian Home and School, of which 
that popular and efficient institution, familiarly known as The 
Fredericksburg* College was a part. 

Founded in 1893 by Reverend A. P. Saunders, D. D., 
the beneficial activities of this institution continued until 1915- 
Not only were the widows and orphans of Presbyterian min- 
isters' the beneficiaries in many ways, but it afforded unusually 
fine opportunities to the youth of the town, and surrounding 
country, not only in the usual college courses, but in its school 
of music and art as well. In many instances its graduates 
have distinguished themselves at the University of Virginia, 
Johns Hopkins, and elsewhere. 

Colored Institutions 

The colored citizens of the town — and the phrase is 
synonymous with law-abiding, respectful and inteligent citi- 
zens — have shown commendable energy and interest in their 
churches and schools, as is manifested in the substantial 
buildings housing their religious and educational activities. 
Three churches, all of the Baptist denomination, each with its 
own pastor, hold services regularly. Each has a large con- 
gregation and a flourishing Sunday School. Though the 
equipment of both high and graded schools is only fair, the 
corps of teachers, all of their own race, is as efficient as any- 
where in the State. 

"Shiloh Old Site" and "Shiloh New Site" are the leading 
colored churches, and each of these has been steadily growing 
for years. 



180 



The Church of England 

First in Virginia, the Church of England Has the Longest History. 

It has been said, and by reliable searchers after historical 
truths, that the first Christian shrine in America was built 
by Spanish missionaries, and on the site where now 
stands the City of Fredericksburg. But as no proof has been 
found, we relinquish this claim, and find our first authentic 
beginnings of Christianity in an old entry found in the records 
of Spotsylvania County, 1724: Information brought by 
Thomas Chew, Church warden, against John Diggs for absent- 
ing himself from the place of divine worship; he is fined ten 
shillings, or one hundred pounds of tobacco, or must receive 
corporal punishment in lieu thereof, as the law directs." These 
were days in the infant colony when religious freedom had 
no place. Legislation was paramount and, though never since 
those times has the need of the gospel been so obvious, the 
people had to accept the Minister that "His Honorable, the 
Governor," sent them. 

St. George's parish and the early history of Fredericks- 
burg are inseparably linked. Affairs of Church and affairs of 
State were embodied in one system. 

In the main the character and manner of living of the 
early ministers of the Church of England here were not in 
accord with the dignity of their mission. Incidents so indi- 
cating were not at all unusual : on one occasion a clergyman of 
gigantic size and strength had a rough and tumble fight with 
members of his vestry, in which the laymen were knocked out. 
The burly Englishman took as his text the following Sunday, 
"And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote 
certain of them, and plucked off their hair," Bishop Meade 
says, "Surely God must have greatly loved this branch of his 
Holy Catholic Church, or he would not have borne so long 
with her unfaithfulness, and so readily forgiven her sins." 

181 



Some of the Early Rectors 

But happily, all those who in the olden days ministered in the 
Parish of St. George were not of this type. 

St George's Parish and the County of Spotsylvania were 
contemporaneously established in 1720. The first official 
record of the parish extant is the notice of the vestry meeting 
on January 16, 1726, at Mattaponi, one of the three churches 
then in the parish, Reverend Theodosius Staige, minister. 
Reverend Rodman Kennor succeeded Mr. Staige. It was not 
until the loth of April, 1732, that Colonel Henry Willis con- 
tracted to build a church on the site of the present St. George's, 
seventy-five thousand pounds of tobacco being the considera- 
tion. After much discussion accompanied by usual excitement, 
the State urging its claims and the vestry not indifferent as 
to who "His Honorable, the Governor," would send them, 
the Reverend Patrick Henry, uncle of the famous Patrick 
Henry, became minister. Colonel Henry Willis and Colonel 
John Waller, "or he that first goes to Williamsburgh" is 
desired tO' return thanks to His Honor. 

Reverend Patrick Henry resigned his charge in 1734, 
and Sir William Gooch, Governor, sent a Mr. Smith, who, 
on account of his "faithfulness or the contrary," was 
very generally disliked, and after two sermons, left. The 
names of two ministers, father and son, appear successively 
on the interesting old yellow rolls at this time, Reverend James 
Marye, Sr., and Reverend James Marye, Jr. who officiated at 
St. George's for almost half a century, and who were faithful 
and zealous. The salary of these men was fixed by law at 
sixteen thousand pounds of tobacco. It is impossible to com- 
pute with accuracy this equivalent in English money, "minis- 
ter's tobacco" representing many varieties, and its value seem- 
ing to fluctuate. In general four pounds of tobacco equaled 
one shilling. The elder Marye married Letitia Mary Ann 
Staige, the sister of the first rector ; and Y;ieamans Smith, who 
built the attractive country seat "Snowden" in 1806, married 
Ann Osborne, a daughter of James Marye, Jr. From these 
families are lineally descended many of the worshipers at old 
St. George's today. 

182 



The Oldest Cemetery Here 

In 175 1 the first bell, the gift of John Spotswood, was 
used. In 1755 the legislature passed an act directing that 
each parish should provide for the maintenance of the poor, 
thus the first "poor-house" was established. In 1722 an act 
was passed by the General Assembly relating to the church- 
yard, and authorizing the vestry to reduce the dimensions 
thereof. This small and interesting spot, so carefully main- 
tained today, was used as "God's Acre," before the legal estab- 
lishment of Fredericksburg in 1727. Contiguous to the church 
on the north, this little "City of the dead," is a grassy hillside, 
sloping gently to the east; and amid the sturdy elms and 
maples, the graceful fronds and purple blossoms of the wis- 
taria and lilac, the old fashioned roses, the clinging ivy and 
periwinkle, rest the ashes of those who helped to make the 
Fredericksburg of long, long ago. We love to think of those 
noted personages sleeping there, that 

"It is not hard to be a part of the garden's pageantry 
AA/Tien the heart climbs too, set free." 

Colonel Fielding Lewis, of Kenmore, and his three infant 
grandchildren, sleep beneath the old stone steps of the church. 
William Paul, the brother of John Paul Jones, is under the 
linden tree. Archibald McPherson, the generous Scotchman 
and friend of the poor, sleeps under a tangle of ivy and roses. 
Reverend E. C. McGuire and his relict, Judith Lewis, great 
niece of General Washington lie close to the loved old 
church beneath the weeping willow. Under the shade 
of the same beautiful tree, sleeps the father of Martha 
Washington, Colonel John Dandridge of New Kent County. 
Others, well known, are not far away. 

Reverend James Marye, Jr., a faithful scion of the Hu- 
guenot faith, taught a parochial school here, which George 
Washmgton as a youth attended. It is thought to have been 
at this school that he wrote, under Mr. Marye' s dictation, his 
celebrated "Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior," the origi- 
nal of which is preserved among the country's archives. The 

183 



Washington's Last Attendance 

faithful service of Reverend James Marye, Jr., ended with his 
death on October i, 1780, and during seven years following 
the parish was without a minister. 

In 1785 agreeably to the law passed in the legislature 
giving all Chrisitan denominations the privilege of incorpora- 
tion, the people of St. George's Church met, and elected the 
following vestrymen : John Chew, John Steward, Mann Page, 
Thomas Colson, Thomas Crutcher, Daniel Branham, Thomas 
Sharp and James Lewis. 

In 1787 Reverend Thomas' Thornton was unanimously 
elected rector of the church. Steady faith, unaffected piety, 
ability to associate the dignity of the minister with the famil- 
iarity of the man, are some of the characteristics which his 
biographers have attributed to him, and which made him 
acceptable to all classes. It was during his ministrations that 
the Fredericksburg Academy was held in such high estima- 
tion. Many eminent men have attended this old school. 

Four pews in the gallery of St. George's were reserved 
for the use of the professors and students. An interesting 
incident which occurred at this time is told by Judge John T. 
Lomax, then a small boy. An addition to the galleries' had 
just been completed, when George Washington, with freshly 
won honors, came on what proved to be his last visit to his 
mother, and as usual attended service at St George's Church. 
Because of the presence of the hero, a great crowd gathered. 
Suddenly, during the service, there was heard from the gal- 
leries the sound of creaking timbers; this proved to be only 
the settling of the new rafters, which had not been well ad- 
justed, but which caused great fear and excitement in the con- 
gregation. 

After the resignation of Mr. Thornton in 1792, the fol- 
lowing names appear on the church rolls, and follow each 
other in quick succession : Reverend John Woodville, James 
Stevenson, Abner Waugh, Samuel Low and George Strebeck. 
During the ministry of Reverend James Stevenson two insti- 
tutions of learning were established, and the benefit and ad- 

184 



The Female Charity School 

vantages derived therefrom are felt to this day. The male 
Charity School had its beginnings in 1795, with these gentle- 
men as subscribers: Benjamin Day, Charles Yates, Elisha 
Hall, William Lovell, Fontaine Maury, George French and 
Daniel Henderson. 

Though this school ceased to exist years ago, there are 
still three stone tablets inset in the wall of the old building on 
Hanover Street, where the sessions of this school were held- 
(This building has been rejuvenated lately, and is now the 
home of the Christian Science Society.) These tablets are 
in memory of three of Fredericksburg's philanthropists, 
Archibald MdPherson, who died in 1754, bequeathing his 
property to the poor of the town, Benjamin Day and Thomas 
Colson, whose services to the school were many and valuable 
and whose charity was broad. 

The Female Charity School was established in 1802, by 
the women of St. George's parish, generously assisted finan- 
cially by Miss Sophia Carter, of Prince William County, and 
is still maintained to this day; their present substantial brick 
building on upper Main Street has been occupied since 1836 
and houses at the present time eight happy little maidens 
who, with their predecessors numbering into many hundreds, 
would probably, without its gracious influence have grown 
into womanhood without a spark of that light attained by 
education and religious influence. 

But notwithstanding these blessings times grew sad for 
the Church of England in Virginia. The Revolution in which 
each was involved was destructive to the upbuilding of the 
Church and the growth of Virginia. The results of that war 
were many and far reaching. The church had been closely 
associated with that tyrannical government which the people 
had now thrown off. Its liturgy, its constitution, its ministry 
and members were naturally subjects of criticism, prejudice 
and abuse. Having had the strong right arm of a strong 
government for protection, it was now forced to stand alone, 
and it seemed for a while to totter, and almost to fall. 

185 



New Edifice Consecrated 

Such were the conditions under which Reverend Edward 
C. McGuire took charge of St, George's Church in 1813. In 
writing of his reception here he says, "I was received with very 
little cordiality, in consequence I suppose of the shameful con- 
duct of several ministers who preceded me in this place. . . . 
Under these disastrous circumstances, I commenced a career 
most unpromising in the estimation of men." 

Nevertheless, this inexperienced young man of thirty 
years proved that by living himself the gospel of truth and 
love and preaching "simplicity and godly sincerity," he could 
overcome those difficulties implied in the hopeless condition 
which prevailed at the outset of his ministry, when, we are 
told, there were only eight or ten communicants of the church. 
But his long ministry of forty-five years was one of prosperity 
and blessing. 

In 1816 the second church on the same site and this time 
a brick edifice, was consecrated and Bishop Moore confirmed 
a class of sixty persons. Reverend Philip Slaughter says in 
his history of St. George's Parish, published in 1847, "There 
is apparently but one thing wanting to the outward prosperity 

of this congregation and that is, room for its growth 

I trust that the parishioners will build such a house for God. 

.... as will be a fit monument for their thankfulness 

a suitable reward to their venerable pastor for his life-long 
devotion to their service." His hope materialized, for in the 
fall of 1849 the present beautiful edifice was completed. A 
few years after the completion of this building, July 9, 1854, 
a fire occurred, and the church was damaged. The loss was 
covered by insurance, and the building quickly restored to its 
former beauty. There is an authenticated story told in con- 
nection with this fire; the day succeeding the fire there was 
found, on the Chatham bridge, the charred and blackened 
remnant of a leaf from an old Bible and almost the only words 
legible was the significant verse from Isaiah, Our holy and 
our beautiful house, where our fathers praised Thee, is burned 
up with fire and all our pleasant things are laid waste. 

186 



Some Notable Vestrymen 

Shortly before the death of Dr. McGuire, in 1858, the 
climax of his ministry was realized in the class of eighty- 
eight souls, which he presented to Bishop Meade for confirma- 
tion. Reverend Alfred M. Randolph, afterwards beloved 
Bishop of the diocese, succeeded Dr. McGuire, and in chrono- 
logical order came Rev. Magruder Maury, Rev. Edmund C. 
Murdaugh, D. D., Rev. Robert J. McBryde, Rfev. J. K. Mason, 
Rev. William M. Clarke, Rev. William D. Smith, Rev. Robert 
J. McBryde, D. D., the second time, and Rev. John J. Lanier, 
scholar and author, who is the present rector. 

These men were all rnore or less gifted with a high 
degree of mentality and spirituality. Of a later and another 
day they were potent agents in diffusing the blessed light 
which must emanate from the church. 

For nearly two centuries St, George's Church, its three 
edifices each more costly and imposing than its predecessor, 
has commanded the summit of the hill at Princess Anne and 
George Streets. Its' interesting tablets and beautiful windows 
tell in part, the story of its engaging past. 

In glancing over that precious manuscript, the old parish 
vestry book, which numbers its birthdays by hundreds of 
years, names familiar to every student of American history are 
noted. Colonel Fielding Lewis is there and General Hugh 
Mercer, General George Weedon, and Colonel Charles Wash- 
ington, also Dr. Charles Mortimer, the physician of Mary 
Washington. Others dear to the hearts of old Fredericks- 
burgers are Reuben T. Thom, who held the unusual record 
of serving the vestry for a successive period of fifty-two years; 
Zachary Lewis, attorney to his majesty, the King of England; — 
Lewis Willis, grandfather of Catherine, Princess Murat; 
Captain John Herndon, Francis Thornton, Ambrose Grayson, 
Francis Talliaferro, Robert Beverly; but for the fact that 
there is such a vast assemblage of names, interesting to the 
generation of today, an entertaining recital of them in this 
brief sketch, would be possible. 



187 



The 250th Birthday 

Fredericksburg Celebrates an Anni'versarv 

Many months were given to preparation for this greatest 
event in the modern history of Fredericksburg, the celebration 
of her 250th birthday as a chartered community. Much 
thought w^as spent on how best to portray the Town's history 
from the granting of the "Lease Lands" by Governor Berkley, 
in May, 1 671, to be settled by the Colonists. 

The entire city officially and individually had given itself 
up, practically, to staging a Celebration befitting the unique 
occasion. All the hard working committees declared things 
ready for the Morning of the 25th of May, when the cere- 
monies of the day would begin at nine o'clock with an official 
reception to delegates with credentials', and special guests of 
the city, at the Court House. Doubtful ones had not lacked 
prediction of failure, and they were confirmed in their fears 
when the early morning began with a thunder storm and down' 
pour. The stout hearted and faithful who had carried on the 
work were, however, at their posts of duty, and gladly saw 
the sun break through just in time for the opening festivities. 
The entire city was elaborately decorated, flags flying and 
*'the colors" displayed in bunting on every home and building. 
A program, replete with events, half solemn, gay or merry, 
was arranged for the day, of which every moment was taken 
up. Never before in its varied history did such an air of gayety 
envelop the city. Visitors flocked to Fredericksburg and long 
before the beginning thousands had gathered, sidewalks, steps 
and porches were crowded with merry throngs in carnival 
mood. While the thousands of visitors were pouring into the 
town by railroad and by highway the celebration was formally 
inaugurated when the official guests appeared at the court- 
house and presented Chajcman W. L. Brannan of the Celebra- 
tion Committee, and Mayor J. Garnett King their credentials, 

188 




< 

Q 

W 



=Q 



^ 



cq 



cq 



CQ 



Real Indians In War Dance 

which will become a part of the archives of the town. This 
formality took but a few minutes. 

At nine thirty A. M., exercises were held on Lewis Street 
to mark the boundaries of the Lease Lands, which was done 
under the auspices of the A. P. V. A., one of whose members, 
Mrs. V. M. Fleming, had in searching old records, come across 
the forgotten document of the Lease Lands and worked hard 
for the celebration. A granite marker was unveiled with the 
following ceremonies : 

Opening prayer — Rev. R. C. Gilmore. 

Address — Dr. J. P. Smith, introduced by Dr. Barney. 

Unveiling — by Jacquelin Smith, a descendant of Lawrence 

Smith, first Commander of the town. 
Acceptance — Mayor J. Garnett King. 
Benediction — Rev. J. J. Lanier. 
These exercises were very impressive and largely attended. 

Receptions', addresses by distinguished guests, parades of 
soldiers and marines, veterans of three wars and descendants 
of Indians were all on the program which followed and fasci- 
nated the crowds at various points. In front of the Princess 
Anne Hotel was presented a lively scene, with one of the bands 
of marines from Quantico playing on the balcony while 
throngs of gaily dressed women, citizens, officials and marine 
officers made up a remarkably brilliant ensemble. 

One of the most interesting numbers of the morning pro- 
gram was an Indian War Dance, in costume, by members of 
the Rappahannock tribe of Indians, actual descendants of the 
men who concluded the first treaty with Capt. John Smith. 
This was in the City Park at 1 1 130 A. M. The tribal dances 
were most picturesque and were in keeping with the birthday 
celebration. A concert by the Marine Band followed the 
exhibition by the Indians. The other principal point of in- 
terest at the same time was Washington Avenue where the 
Fort Myer Cavalry Troop gave an exhibition of wonderful 
skill. These manoeuvers were magnificently executed and 

189 



The Distinguished Guests 

received with enthusiastic applause by the crowd. The Troops 
fell in line at the whistle. The two platoons then broke from 
the center and executed column right and left respectively. 
The first platoon executed troopers by the left flank and the 
second platoon serpentined in and out. The whole troop 
spiraled and unwound at a gallop, then executed by fours by 
the left flank center and rode to the opposite end of the field. 

A large platform at the north end of Washington Avenue 
held the speakers, and the specially invited guests. Among the 
distinguished guests and delegates present were His Excel- 
lency, Westmoreland Davis, his staff of 15 members, Mrs. 
Davis, Hon. Herbert L. Bridgman, member of the New York 
State Board of Regents and author, journalist and scientist, 
Hon. Chas. Beatty Alexander, vice-president general of the 
Society of the Cincinnati, and millionaire philanthropist, of 
New York, Gen. Smedley D. Butler, U. S. M. C, Quantico, 
Gen. John A. Lejeune, U. S. M. C, Senator Claude A. Swan- 
son, Washington, Col. F. Nash Bilisoly, State Commissioner 
of Fisheries; Chief George Nelson, Rappahannock Indians; 
Chief G. N. Cooke, Pamunkies; Chief C. Costello, Mattaponi, 
Chief O, W. Adkins. Chickahominy, John Halsey, represent- 
ing the Sons of Revolution of New Jersey; Mrs. Archibald R. 
Harmon, representative of the city of Philadelphia; Capt. M. 
W. Davis, commander of cavalry from Fort Myer; Major 
Walter Guest Kellog, Regent of the State of New York; 
Newbold Noyes, associate editor and part owner of the Wash- 
ington Star; Major General Adelbert Cronkite, commander, 
80th division U. S. Army and others. As a native of Fred- 
ericksburg a warm welcome was accorded to Admiral Robert 
S. Griffin, who has won fame and distinction in the U. S. 
Navy and he was accompanied by his son, Commander Grifiin. 
Dr. Kate Waller Barrett, bom in Stafford County, and a 
woman widely known for her activities in philanthropic and 
social work, was another who received marked attention. 

Mayor J. Garnett King was the official host of the city, 
and so well were his arduous duties performed that no one 
felt neglected. The Chairman, President W. L. Brannan, of 

190 



Mr. C. B. Alexander's Address 

the Chamber of Commerce, presided, and under his skillful 
direction these ceremonies were conducted harmoniously and 
impressively. Mr. Brannan did the hardest work in organizing 
the Anniversary Celebration and its success was largely due 
to his energies and efforts and efficiency. 

Following the cavalry drill about 11:15 A. M., Hon. 
Chas. Beatty Alexander, LL. D., LITT. D., vice-president 
general of the Society of the Cincinnati and a Regent of the 
State of New York, was introduced by Judge John T. Gool- 
rick and made the following address of which we quote a few 
words : 

"When I was about ten years of age I was sent with my 
Aunt, Janett Alexander, the daughter of Archibald Alex- 
ander, of Rockbridge County, Virginia, to visit at Chatham, 
I can vividly recall the generous yet well-ordered life which 
prevailed at that time under the benign auspices of the beauti- 
ful Mrs. J. Horace Lacy, with her noble husband, and I re- 
member the huge wood fires in every room and the delicious 
Virginia food. Each of us in the house, I remember, was fur- 
nished with a body servant who was charged with the duty 
of seeing that we were made thoroughly comfortable. I was 
shown the interesting tree under which it was said that Gen- 
eral Washington and General Lee both proposed to their future 
wives and I am interested to learn that the Rev. James Power 
Smith, A. D. C. to Stonewall Jackson, also under that very 
tree proposed to the lovely Agnes Lacy, the daughter of the 
house. 

Every night the family and guests would gather around 
the huge log fire and discuss the issues of the day. On the way 
South I had been taken to the Senate to hear Senator Crit- 
tenton present his famous compromise. I also had the pleasure 
of spending the Christmas day of 1859 at the Seddons house, 
at Snowden, about eight miles from here. Their home was 
destroyed later by order of General Benj. F. Butler, Mr. 
Seddon's brother, James A. Seddon, being Secretary of War 
of the Confederacy. I can readily recall the appearance of 
the streets of Fredericksburg." 

191 



Banquets and. Luncheons 

Before Dr. Alexander completed his address, over in the 
City Park a few blocks away, real Rappahannock Indians, 
descendants of those redskins who inhabited this area, launched 
into a series of yells, with accompanying dances and waving 
of tomahawks over their heads, and gave to the people an 
exhibition of the tribal dance of their ancestors, a preliminary 
to an informal severance of diplomatic relations with pale faces 
or some other tribe of Indians that had incurred their enmity. 
This spectacular ceremony was accompanied by music from a 
band representing a modem fighting element, the marines. 

Again the crowd scattered over the city. People kept open 
house that day. Besides the private entertaining, large dinners 
were served in Hurkamp Park, and other selected places to 
thousands of marines from Quantico, as well as to all those 
who came unprovided with their own luncheons. A banquet 
was given by the city at Princess Anne Hotel tO' two hundred 
invited guests. Prior to the luncheon a reception was held 
there by Governor Davis, who shook hands with hundreds of 
people. Practically a reception was in progress at this hotel 
during the whole morning. Many ladies had been appointed 
by the Chairman and the Mayor on the official Reception 
Committee. They met there at nine o'clock in the morning 
to greet the guests. The luncheon was beautifully appointed 
and served at round tables, holding eight. A long table ex- 
tended across the end of the large dining hall, where sat Gov- 
ernor Davis and Mrs. Davis, the speakers and other dis- 
tinguished guests. Mayor and Mrs. King, Chairman Brannan, 
Judge John T. Goolrick and other city officials and their wives. 
Music was furnished during the luncheon by the Franklin 
Orchestra of the city. 

After the luncheon, the biggest event of the Celebration, 
the Parade started to move. It is not the part of this his- 
torian to describe the work or the executive ability of those 
in charge, that led up to the final accomplishment of this 
pageant of exquisite beauty, or the forty-five floats exhibited 
in this parade. The scenes were perfect and carried out the 
idea of the town's history. Mrs. L. L. Coghill, Chairman of 

192 



The Order of Parade 

this, the principal feature of the Anniversary Celebration, 
worked out the entire scheme giving her personal attention 
to each float, in the outline of its general plan, details and 
coloring. The beauty and reality of the parade surprised 
even the most optimistic. The closest attention was paid to 
the genuine historical aspects of each period visualized, and 
the characters and costumes were wisely chosen. The parade 
was nearly two miles long, and took one hour to pass in 
review. A fleet of airplanes circled over the city and gave a 
modern touch to the picturesque setting. 

To Mrs. Coghill and her committee the multitude paid 
tribute in applause. 

Led by a platoon of police, the parade passed as follows : 
Chief Marshall Edgar M. Young and his two chief aides, 
W. S. Embrey and J. Conway Chichester. Three color- 
bearers, one each for the American flag, the Colonial flag and 
the Virginia State flag followed. The music for this, the first 
division, was furnished by the United States Cavalry Band 
from Fort Myer and behind it came Troop K, 3rd United 
States Cavalry, Fort Myer. The glistening brown horses 
and the snappy appearance of the troopers brought forth the 
plaudits of the crowds. The United States Marine Post Band, 
from Quantico, followed, heading the second division, which 
was composed entirely of floats giving Fredericksburg's 250 
years in picture. This display arranged under the direction 
of Mrs. L. L. Coghill, brought forth most favorable comment. 
No important point in Fredericksburg's long series of his- 
toric events was overlooked. 

It began with floats of the four tribes of Indians in this 
section which recognized the great king Powhatan as their 
ruler, the Mattaponi, Chickahominy, Pamunkey and the Rap- 
pahannock tribes. The war paint of the redskins stood out 
in deep contrast to the pure white of the floats. On down 
through the days of Capt. John Smith and the men who 
established a colony here came the floats, depicting and dem- 
onstrating in brilliant succession the history of the town in 
every aspect of its political and social life. There was 

193 



Some of the Beautiful Floats 

Washington and his cherry tree, Washington as the student, 
John Paul Jones who once worked in a store here; 
Revolutionary generals ; ducking stools, pillories and 
stocks ; the peace ball attended by Washington and his officers ; 
"To live and Die in Dixie," showing typical darkies before 
the war; "The Blue and Gray", Dr. James P. Smith, last 
of "Stonewall" Jackson's staff, who participated in other 
festivities during the day, and Maj. T. B. Robinson, of the 
Union Army, riding side by side in an old shay drawn by 
the principal motive power of that day, oxen. One of the 
purposes of the celebration of the city's 250th birthday was 
to acquaint the public with Fredericksburg's past, and certainly 
that past was visibly before the eyes of the onlookers. Each 
float in passing received its meed of praise and applause. 
It would be a pleasure to describe them all, but the scope of 
the present volume will permit only a brief sketch of this 
beautiful feature. 

The Knights of the Golden Horseshoe, personified by 
the gallant boys of Spotsylvania, represented this splendid 
band of former Virginians whose ride across the mountains 
brought them everlasting fame 

"Virginia" was truly regal in its setting. Between four 
white eagle topped columns a beautiful and stately young 
woman clad in white and gold draperies stood over the pros- 
trate form of the tyrant imperiously proclaiming in her pose 
"Sic Semper Tyrannis", the proud motto of the State. 

The shades of morning were used to make this one of 
the most attractive of the floats', it being our Dawn of Day. 
Pink draperies with morning glories twining over themi — 
pink, blue, white and purple, presented a beautiful background 
for the figures of the typical group of mien and women pre- 
senting and receiving the "Leased Land" commission from 
Governor Berkeley. 

The float of the period of 1608, which well represented 
the story intended, was the Captain John Smith float. That 
distinguished man with his two companions, was shown moor- 

194 



Floats Depict Town's Story 

ing his boat, on the shore of the Rappahannock. An old 
Indian and his young son (real Indians of the Pamunkey 
tribe) were stepping into the boat, intensely interested in the 
beads and other baubles which Captain Smith temptingly holds 
out as barter. 

An unique and most interesting feature was the coach 
containing "Col. Henry Willis" — the top man of the town — 
and Col. William Byrd and his fifteen year old wife going to 
visit at Willis Hill. The coach was mounted high and the 
body glass encased, with steps that let down; there were old 
time tallow candles in holders for light. Sitting in state with 
her lordly spouse and the top man of the town, was the quaint 
and pretty little fifteen year old bride, doubtless enjoying the 
mimic occasion as much as her predecessor did the real one. 

The float "Revolutionary Generals of Fredericksburg" 
was one that brought much cheering. A group of popular 
young men in Colonial uniforms with swords and side arms, 
representing Washington, Mercer, Weedon and others, were 
the principals in this. 

Following this came one representing our first postoffice. 
General Weedon, Postmaster; scene taken from the small 
room in the Rising Sun Tavern, and the characters all de- 
scendants of General Weedon. 

The "Peace Ball" float was copied from the celebrated 
painting, a colored engraving of which (given by Mr. Gordon) 
hangs over the mantel in the Mary Washington House. This 
was gorgeous in decorations of black and gold, which threw 
into high relief the picturesque costumes and coloring of Colo- 
nial days. Mary Washington, her son George, and the young 
French lord Lafayette were the outstanding figures. 

The Ducking Stool, showing also a Pillory, Stocks, and 
a refractory wife perched upon the stool about tO' receive a 
ducking, caused much hilarity. 

The Battles of "Fredericksburg" and "Appomattox" 
were realistic in effect, the latter shown by an old Confederate 

195 



Chorus Songs Arc Thrilling 

soldier leaning on his musket with the beloved flag he fol- 
lowed for four years furled amidst the stacked guns. 

"To live and die in Dixie" may well be described as a 
scene typical of the "Old South." A negro cabin ornamented 
with pine saplings and an old darkey sitting at ease with his 
pipe, in the doorway, and just outside a contented "old 
Mammy," in characteristic pose. The really excellent pageant 
came down to the present day with 'Woman's Work." "The 
American Legion" — "Armistice" and "The Hope of the 
Future" — the latter an immense float filled with happy chil- 
dren Even after the passing of the last float there was little 
diminution of the masses of people on Washington Avenue — 
apparently their favorite stage setting 

A Marine Band concert filled in an hour or more, delight- 
ing the audience with a wide range of selections. 

Grouped on the immense platform a chorus of one hun- 
dred voices followed. The program was attractively arranged 
with a series of period songs, several of which were illustrated 
with tableaux. The solemn strains of "America" were thrill- 
ingly ^rendered amid patriotic scenes, the people standing 
between the monument to Mary the Mother of Washington, 
and that of the gallant Revolutionary General Hugh Mercer, 
and on ground consecrated by the blood of the armies of the 
North and the South in the Civil War where each army had 
planted, at different times, its guns, and on ground that be- 
longed to Washington's family. The hills of the Rappahan- 
nock, once crowned so threateningly with battlements of artil- 
lery, echoed the volume of sound, until it rung across the 
valley. 

"The Land of Sky Blue Water" a period song, ren- 
dered by Mr. Taylor Scott in his magnificent baritone, was 
illustrated with an Indian tableau posed by State Normal 
School students in costume. "Hail Columbia" by an entire 
chorus and "Drink to me only with Thine Eyes" a song of 
Colonial period, by male voices. "The Star Spangled Banner" 
period of 1812 was sung with tableau by American Soldiers. 

196 




"The 250T11 BiRTiiDAv" 
Three of the floats in the Parade, May 21, 1921 



Mr. Whitheck Entertains 

Civil War Period: "Old Folks at Home," "The Roses 
Nowhere Bloom So Fair As In Virginia," tune of "Maryland, 
My Maryland," "Carry Me Back to Ole Virginia," by a bevy 
of young girls attired in frocks of "the sixties." 

The Battle Hymn of the Republic and Dixie with its ever 
inspiring melody were sung, and then the Spanish American 
War period exemplified by "A Hot Time in the Old Town To- 
Night." 

The songs and tableaux of the World War period struck 
a more tender note, and revived in many hearts the anxieties 
and sorrows of that epoch in the World's History, when days 
of apprehension and sleepless nights were the "common fate 
of all." The Tableau shown with it, represented a Red Cross 
Nurse, a Soldier and a Sailor of the United States. 

"Auld Lang Syne," sung by the Chorus, ended the Con- 
cert and the great crowd scattered like leaves before the wind, 
many hastening to attend private receptions, others to get ready 
for the public ball at the Princess Anne Hotel at which would 
gather all the notables who had helped to make the day suc- 
cessful. The Mayor of the City, Dr. King and Mrs. King, 
gave an official reception at their home on Prince Edward 
Street tendered to Governor and Mrs. Davis and other guests 
of the Anniversary occasion. Among the special guests pres- 
ent, in addition to Gov. and Mrs. Davis and staff, werd Gen. 
and Mrs. John A. Lejeune and staff. Gen. Smedley D. Butler, 
Hon. Herbert L. Bridgman and Hon. Chas. B. Alexander. 
Several hundred citizens of the city called and met Fredericks- 
burg's distinguished guests. The reception was a brilliant 
and most enjoyable affair. 

Later Mr. and Mrs. C. O'Connor Goolrick entertained 
at a smaller reception a number of their friends and some 
invited guests of the city, including many of those at the 
reception given by the Mayor. 

The reception at "Kenmore" to all visiting men, and men 
citizens was one of the biggest affairs of the evening, and the 
hospitality of the host, Mr. H. A. Whitbeck, made the; occa- 

197 



Ball at the Princess Anne 

sion especially pleasant. An hour or more was spent in good 
fellowship, the mingling of old friends and hearty greetings 
to new ones. "Kenmore," grand old mansion that it is, was 
resplendent under the lights and heautiful decorations and 
Mr. Whitbeck's party for the men was one of the most attrac- 
tive of all the social events. 

As a fitting climax to the unique celebration which will 
go down the annals of Fredericksburg as one of the greatest 
in its history, was a Colonial ball at Hotel Princess Anne. In 
the early part of the evening the hotel was crowded with a 
merry throng of guests which almost prohibited dancing for 
the lack of space. The lobby, ladies' parlor and ball room 
were filled to overflowing with handsomely gowned women 
and men in evening clothes. With an unusually good orchestra 
from the Marine Post at Quantico supplying the music, the 
ball was opened by a grand march, led by Governor West- 
moreland Davis and Mrs. Judge John T. Goolrick, who wore 
a handsome evening dress of sapphire blue. 

As the evening advanced the crowd of spectators which 
occupied much of the floor space, thinned out and more room 
was available for the dancing couples. About midnight a 
supply of horns, confetti and streamers were distributed to 
all present and the dance assumed a merry cabaret aspect. The 
orchestra was full of pep, as were the dancers, and the scene 
was one of much gaiety and fun. Dancing continued until 
two o'clock Thursday morning, when lights' were out and the 
gayest day in the long annals of the Picture City between the 
hills of the Rappahannock, "historic Fredericksburg," became 
one of her treasured memories; not to be forgotten, but to be 
kept alive with her traditions by the descendants of the splen- 
did men and women who have made and preserved her his- 
tory, and caused her to become known to the world. 



198 



Appendix 



Thomas Jefferson in the Virginia Convention of 1776 
was the successful patron and aggressive advocate of the 
resolution for the appointment of a Committee to revise 
certain laws in order that they might be in accordance with 
and conform to the changed status and conditions of the State, 
from a Colony of Great Britain to an independent sovereignty. 

This Committee, consisting of Thomas Jefferson, George 
Mason of Gunston Hall, George Wythe, Edmund Pendleton 
and Thomas L. Lee, met in the Rising Sun Tavern in Fred- 
ericksburg on January 13, 1777, where they inaugurated and 
formulated bills of great and far reaching import, which were 
subsequently enacted into laws by the Legislature of Virginia 
and followed by the other thirteen Sates of the Confederation. 

These four bills were then considered as forming a sys- 
tem by which every fibre of ancient or future aristocracy 
would bd eradicated and a foundation laid for a government 
truly republican. 

To only four of these we make reference — namely — 

THE REPEAL OF THE OLD ENGLISH LAWS 
OF PRIMOGENITURE then the law of the State, by which 
the eldest son as a matter of law and right became by descent 
entitled to property rights and privileges above and beyond 
all other heirs: — 

THE REPEAL OF ALL ENTAIL which would pre- 
vent the accumulation and perpetuation of wealth in select 
families and preserve the soil of the country for its people, 
thus promoting an equality of opportunity for the average 
citizen : — 

199 



A 



THE ESTABLISHMENT OF PUBLIC EDUCA- 
TION AND OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS FOR ALL 
CHILDREN — OF COLLEGES TEACHING THE 
HIGHEST GRADE OF SCIENCE— From this has evolved 
the present public school system, and Jefferson being- saturated 
with this idea commenced by the establishment of the Uni- 
versity of Virginia. A great service performed by this Com- 
mittee fostered and largely encouraged by Jefferson and 
Mason was its BILL FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM— 
which met with more active opposition than did the other 
three, for it did not become a law until 1785. By it the State 
received its charter of divorcement from the Church — religion 
and politics were separated. It provided "that henceforth no 
man could be compelled to frequent or support any religious 
worship place or ministry, but all men should be free to pro- 
fess and by argument maintain their opinions in matters of 
religion and the same should in no wise diminish, enlarge or 
effect their civil capacity." 

No elaborate or extended thesis or dissertation on the 
too apparent merits, virtue, value and importance of these 
measures', in this brief sketch, is attempted. The purpose 
really being, with emphasis, to declare without successful con- 
tradiction or any possible doubt or dispute that in the Rising 
Sun Tavern at Fredericksburg on January 13, 1777, these all 
pervading, all important laws of the greatest import were 
formulated and inaugurated by the Committee referred to. 



200 



